literacy

Eritrean children play in the Adi Harush refugee camp in Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

News in Brief 26 March 2021

26 March 2021

News in Brief

Alert over Eritrea refugees after camps found destroyed in Ethiopia
100 million more children fail minimum reading proficiency because of COVID
Severe insecurity in Angola driving families to Nambia

An eleven-year-old girl in Ecuador receives a study guide during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools closed.

International Literacy Day: Celebrate educators, invest in learning potential

8 September 2020

Culture and Education

With 1.4 billion people around the world lacking basic literacy skills, the head of the UN cultural agency on Tuesday urged all those involved in learning, to mobilize the investments needed that could unleash each person’s potential.

A young girl does her school work in Karachi, Pakistan.

UN Photo/John Isaac

On International Day, UN promotes online literacy in digital world

8 September 2017

New technologies open opportunities to improve lives and connect globally, but they can also marginalize those who are illiterate and lack other essential skills needed to navigate them, a senior United Nations official today said, highlighting that some 750 million adults worldwide are not literate.

A UNESCO-Federal Government-supported literacy class in Kano, North-West Nigeria, being part of the project, 'Revitilising Adult and Youth Literacy in Nigeria'.

UNIC Lagos

Spread of literacy among women highlighted in UNESCO anniversary global review

21 April 2017

The increase in reading and writing proficiency among women is a result of the significant up tic in their enrolment and completion of primary education over the last five decades, even as overall funding for adult literacy has remained low, a recently-launched study by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has found.

Literacy, an “accelerator” for development

8 September 2015

General News

Literacy can help to “accelerate” the sustainable development goals or SDGs, the new development targets the UN is due to adopt later this month.

That’s according to the UN cultural agency, UNESCO.

In countries where physical books are hard to come by and illiteracy rates are high, mobile technology is being used to facilitate reading and improve literacy, says UNESCO. Shown, in Kenya, a Masai girl reads on an Android phone.

Worldreader

World Book Day: new UN report spotlights potential of mobile technology to advance literacy

23 April 2014

Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world, according to a new report published today by the United Nations education agency on the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day.

UNESCO

For International Literacy Day, UN flags key role of reading and writing in global peace

7 September 2012

United Nations officials have stressed the importance of literacy in accelerating peace and development, calling for greater efforts to enable children, youth and adults to read, write and transform their lives.

UNESCO

Literacy vital for beating poverty and disease and reinforcing stability – UN

8 September 2011

With nearly 800 million people unable to read or write, the United Nations today marked International Literacy Day with a warning that illiteracy undermines efforts to eliminate a host of social ills such as poverty and sickness and threatens the very stability of nations.

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UNESCO unveils winners of annual literacy awards

28 July 2011

Literacy programmes in Burundi, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the United States won the 2011 International Literacy Prizes of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Iraq: UN agency launches literacy and life skills programme

16 June 2011

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today announced the launch of a literacy and life skills training programme for 6,000 unemployed youth and women in Iraq.

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