Every year on 8 September, the world takes time to highlight world literacy rates and reflect on the remaining literacy challenges.
This year the theme of International Literacy Day is ‘Literacy in a Digital World’ and UNESCO is holding a conference at their Headquarters in Paris. The conference aims to:
- deepen understanding of what kind of literacy skills people need to navigate in a digital world and what this means for literacy teaching and learning;
- share and analyse promising practices with regard to policies, programmes, monitoring and evaluation as well as financing that advances literacy in a digital world;
- explore how digital technologies can support progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on youth and adult literacy.
Just as knowledge, skills and competencies evolve in the digital world, so does what it means to be literate. In order to close the literacy skills gap and reduce inequalities, this year’s International Literacy Day will highlight the challenges and opportunities in promoting literacy in the digital world. This is a world where, despite progress, at least 750 million adults and 264 million out-of-school children still lack basic literacy skills.
If you are interested in following the outcome of this conference and International Literacy Day celebrations around the world you can follow them on Twitter, Twitter LIVE, Facebook and Instagram. Go to http://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy-all/literacy-day for the links.
For more information about literacy support and resources at Careerforce, check out the literacy and numeracy pages on this website.