Unesco statement to mark World Literacy Day

Message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Literacy Day, 8 September 2015 

Every year, on September 8^th, we raise the flag for literacy as a human right, as a force for dignity, and as a foundation for cohesive societies and sustainable development.

This message is especially vital this year, when States will adopt a new agenda for education and development to guide the next 15 years. Promoting literacy must stand at the heart of this new agenda. By empowering individual women and men, literacy helps to advance sustainable development across the board -- from better healthcare and food security to eradicating poverty and promoting decent work.

There has been progress across the world since 2000, but steep challenges remain. Today, 757 million adults still lack basic literacy skills -- two thirds are women. The number of out-of-school children and adolescents is on the rise, standing at 124 million worldwide – while some 250 million children of primary school age are failing to master basic literacy skills even in schooling.

We cannot allow this to continue. Literacy is essential to reach the proposed sustainable development goal to promote “inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.”  THE END FROM THE UNESCO DG.

Moving from the preceding Global picture, the situation in Tanzania the  UNESCO Sub Saharan Africa ( SSA) EFA, 2014 Report shows that the country has made limited progress  with a 4 % gain from 69% in 2000 to 73% in 2012. This is significantly lower than the 9% progress on average in SSA (from 58 to 67% in the same period). In that regard this is the EFA Goal which Tanzania has made the least progress.

In addition, the 2014 ‘Adult Literacy Survey Report for Tanzania Mainland’ of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training reveals that out of 236 adult literacy learners only 31.5% could read, write, and compute simple arithmetic correctly. Whereas, 39% could not read, write and compute at all. These findings depict a worse situation implying that the actual illiteracy rate may be around 39%.

Undoubtedly, this is a big hindrance to achieving any national and international education targets as well as desired socio-economic development. Hence, all education stakeholders ought to join hands in curbing this problem if Tanzania is reach the Middle Income Level by 2025 as envisioned in its 2025 Vision.

Usia Nkhoma Ledama
National Information Officer
UN Information Centre

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Dar es Salaam, 
Tanzania

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