International Literacy Day 2020: Know the history, significance and why the day is observed on September 8

World Literacy Day is observed every year on September 8 to remind the world of the importance of literacy. Literacy opens the doors to educational and employment opportunities so that people are able to live with dignity and be more self-sufficient. Keeping in mind the current status of online teaching and the environment, this year’s theme for the day is “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond with a focus on the role of educators and changing pedagogies.” The idea is to highlight literacy learning in a lifelong learning perspective.

With the change in the mode and focus of learning, literacy missions have certainly suffered a setback as reaching out to millions of children in different parts of the world have become tough, according to the UN. According to the latest report by UNESCO, 773 million adults and young people worldwide lack basic literacy skills even today. 

Scroll down to know the history and significance of the International Literacy Day. 

The first-ever International Literacy Day was celebrated after September 8 was declared the day to highlight the importance of literacy around the world at the 14th session of UNESCO’s general conference in 1966. Since then, the day has been celebrated every year to remind the world of the importance of literacy. 

This year’s celebration will shed light on “the role of the educators and changing pedagogies.” This year, the focus is the importance of literacy for the youth and adults. “During COVID-19, in many countries, adult literacy programmes were absent in the initial education response plans, so most adult literacy programmes that did exist were suspended, with just a few courses continuing virtually, through TV and radio, or in open air spaces.”

There will be two events held by the United Nations, one meeting on ‘Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond: the role of educators and changing pedagogies’ and another on, ‘Meeting on the Laureates of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes 2020.’ 

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