WUNRN
UNESCO
"Gender
inequality persists in the sub-region as women, many of them living in rural
areas, account for 70% of illiterates."
The Conference was opened in the presence of Chinese State Councillor,
Chen Zhili;
While
more than one in five adults worldwide – i.e; more than 774 million people –
can neither read nor write, the overall rate of literacy in the sub-region is
high (91.7%). Countries, such as
Over
two days, participants – first ladies, education ministers, policy-makers,
civil society representatives, education professionals, members of bilateral
and international organizations – examined subjects such as family literacy,
intergenerational teaching, literacy for health and for economic
self-sufficiency. More specifically regional issues, such as literacy in a
multilingual environment or literacy and rural development, were also on the
agenda.
At
the close of the conference, participants recommended that follow up actions in
favour of literacy be carried out at different levels in the sub-region. They
emphasized the need for a strong political commitment at the highest level and
close cooperation between governments and civil society organizations. The need
to start teaching lieracy in people’s mother tongue before moving on to
literacy in the national language was emphasized during the conference, which
also stressed the importance of teaching migrants to read and write.
Mr
Matsuura invited the international community and donors active in the
sub-region to increase their support for literacy. “External aid remains
insufficient to meeting the Education For All goals,” he argued. In 2005, only
US$2.4 billion were channelled to Education For All (EFA), while yearly needs
are estimated to be at US$11 billion if EFA goals are to be met. The part of
overseas assistance devoted to literacy is, furthermore, very weak.
The
Beijing Conference was held in the framework of a series of six regional
conferences to fight illiteracy worldwide. The first took place in
These
initiatives follow the Global Literacy Conference organized by the White House
in
****
Contact:
Sue Williams, Bureau of Public Information, +33 (0)1 45 68 17 06, s.williams@unesco.org
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