UNESCO, US host conference on eliminating adult illiteracy

With an estimated 781 million adults, or one in five of the world’s total, unable to read or write, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today called for a massive increase in training literacy teachers.

“If we are to achieve universal primary education…it is clear that there must be a huge expansion in training for teachers who work with adults in non-formal contexts,” UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura told a roundtable discussion that he hosted at the agency’s Paris headquarters together with United States First Lady Laura Bush, who is the Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012).

The roundtable, entitled “Teacher Training and Literacy,” highlighted the need for a greater supply of trained teachers in regions where an acute shortage is affecting efforts to promote literacy and meet the goals of the Education for All program by 2015. It brought together teachers from the developing world, representatives from UNESCO delegations and UNESCO secretariat staff.

“Ending illiteracy is a challenge for every country,” Mrs. Bush said. “Yet investing in literacy and education helps governments to meet their fundamental obligations: improving opportunities for children and families, strengthening their economies, and keeping their citizens in good health.”

Today's meeting served as a bridge between the first ever White House Conference on Global Literacy in Washington last September, and the first of five follow-up UNESCO regional literacy conferences to be held in Qatar in March.

An Africa regional conference will take place in Mali in September and three other conferences are planned for Latin America in Costa Rica, Europe and Central Asia in Azerbaijan, and Asia, the location of which has yet to be determined.

The September conference included presenters from nine countries representing all regions of the world and highlighted successful literacy programmes in the areas of intergenerational literacy, health literacy and literacy for economic self-sufficiency.

Mr. Matsuura called the September gathering an outstanding success that will inject “vital new momentum into the drive for literacy worldwide.”