Almost 800 million adults cannot read or write, UNESCO says

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8 September 2020

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Paris, Sep 8 (Prensa Latina) On International Literacy Day, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned on Tuesday that about 773 million adults and young people lack basic reading and writing skills.

Regarding the date, established in 1966, the multilateral agency based in Paris hosts a virtual forum to address the challenges of literacy in the situation imposed by Covid-19 and beyond, to propose responses to the crisis and programs on how to teach people read and write have stopped in many places.

Experts and teachers, convened to promote concrete actions that enhance the teaching processes to relegated human beings, are participating in the interactive forum.

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the necessary measures to curb it, such as widespread lockdown measures, aggravated the education situation, since almost 800 million people without access to reading and writing joined to the closure for months of the vast majority of schools globally.

On occasion of the date, the 2020 UNESCO International Literacy Prizes will be granted, and initiatives from Ghana, Mexico, Nepal, the United Kingdom and Yemen will be recognized.

This time, the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, which rewards education and training projects in mother tongues with support of the Republic of Korea, will be granted to Ageing Nepal and United World Schools, from the United Kingdom.

The UNESCO-Confucius Prize for Literacy, supported by China to assess initiatives in favor of rural populations and out-of-school youth, particularly girls and women, will be awarded to the University Center for Social Participation of the Autonomous University of Puebla, (also known as Benemerita), in Mexico; the literacy office in Sana, Yemen; and Just Commit Foundation in Ghana.