Each 8 September is celebrated as United Nations (UN) International Literacy Day.

The UN website explains:

Since 1967, the annual celebrations of International Literacy Day (ILD) have taken place on 8 September around the world to remind policy-makers, practitioners, and the public of the critical importance of literacy for creating more literate, just, peaceful, and sustainable society. 

Literacy is a fundamental human right for all. It opens the door to the enjoyment of other human rights, greater freedoms, and global citizenship. Literacy is a foundation for people to acquire broader knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviours to foster a culture of lasting peace based on respect for equality and non-discrimination, the rule of law, solidarity, justice, diversity, and tolerance and to build harmonious relations with oneself, other people and the planet. In 2022, however, at least one out of seven adults aged 15 and above (765 million) lacked basic literacy skills. Additionally, millions of children are struggling to acquire minimum levels of proficiency in reading, writing and numeracy, while some 250 million children of 6-18 years old are out of school. 

The Thammasat University Library owns several books on the subject of world literacy and on literacy in Thailand.

This year, ILD will be celebrated under the theme of “Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace”. 

There is a pressing need to harness the transformative potential of literacy for promoting mutual understanding, social cohesion, and peace. In today’s world, in which multilingualism is a common practice for many, empowering people by adopting a first language-based, multilingual approach to literacy development and education is particularly effective for its cognitive, pedagogical, and socio-economic benefits. Such an approach can help promote mutual understanding and respect, while solidifying communal identities and collective histories.

ILD2024 will unpack issues related to literacy in multilingual contexts for achieving lasting peace and will explore possible solutions for enhancing policies, lifelong learning systems, governance, programmes, and practices. ILD2024 will be celebrated in-person and online at the global, regional, national, and local levels. 

 The global celebration will be held on 9 and 10 September 2024 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, It will include a global conference, the award ceremony of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes, and side events, such as the annual meeting of Global Alliance of Literacy within the Framework of Lifelong Learning (GAL) and  meetings of the Action Research on Measuring Literacy and Alternative Education (RAMAED), and the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities. It will also be an opportunity to shed light on the literacy agenda in Cameroon and Africa in the context of the African Union’s Year of Education and beyond.

A concept note for this year’s celebrations explains:

International Literacy Day (ILD) 2024 is being celebrated under the theme of ‘Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace’. Literacy is a right and empowers people. It opens doors to the enjoyment of other human rights and freedoms. Literacy provides a foundation on which people can acquire broader knowledge, skills and values, as well as cultivate attitudes and behaviours, to foster a culture of sustainability and lasting peace, based on respect for equality and non-discrimination, the rule of law, solidarity, justice, diversity and tolerance. Literacy also enables people to build harmonious relations with themselves, other people and the planet.

It is thus central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [UN, 2015], forming the basis of peaceful and sustainable societies in which no one is left behind. The world has made gains in literacy. About 50 years ago, almost one-quarter of youth lacked basic literacy skills, compared to less than 8% in 2021. This positive trend can be attributed in large part to the expansion of basic education over the decades. Between 2015 and 2023, the global completion rate has increased from 85% to 88% in primary education, from 74% to 78% in lower secondary education, and from 53% to 59% in upper secondary education.2 Progress, however, has been far from sufficient.

Between 2016 and 2021, the global youth and adult literacy rate for the population aged 15 years and older increased by only 1 percentage point: from 86% to 87%. In 2022, at least one in seven young people and adults still lacked basic literacy skills.3 Millions of children are struggling to acquire minimum levels of proficiency in reading, writing and numeracy, while some 250 million children between the ages of 6–18 years are out of school. In addition, disparities persist across regions, countries and populations. Women accounted for two-thirds of 765 million non-literate youth and adults, a proportion that has remained unchanged over recent decades.

Literacy rates for elderly women in several sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries were estimated to be as low as around 10% in 2022, while the highest rate of 99% was estimated for male youth and adults in Europe and North America. The global picture of literacy disparities may be even more dispiriting if we consider additional parameters such as multilingualism, limitations of conventional literacy statistics and/or a lack of relevant data, persistent inequalities, intergenerational impact, and the intended purposes of literacy in different contexts today. These challenges need to be understood in a broader development landscape as they are often intertwined with other forms of past and present injustices in social, economic, political, cultural and environmental spheres.

Global challenges such as rising conflict and violence, inequalities, poverty, hunger and climate change are increasingly felt in different areas of human life and through their effects on the planet, and especially by those already marginalized prior to the CΟVID-19 pandemic. This unstable ground threatens mutual understanding, harmonious co-existence, pluralism and peace, serving as a sharp reminder of the need to begin by constructing the defences of peace in the minds of people, in which literacy is central.

Thailand and Literacy

As TU students know, Thailand has a successful record in promoting literacy.

In 2018, adult literacy rate for Thailand was 93.8 %.

The adult literacy rate of Thailand increased from 88 % in 1980 to 93.8 % in 2018, growing at an average annual rate of 1.10%.

Adult (15+) literacy rate (%). Total is the percentage of the population age 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.

According to one study, in 2015 in Thailand, the youth literacy rate was 98.1 %. Though Thailand youth literacy rate fluctuated substantially in recent years, it tended to increase from 2000 to 2015.

Youth (15-24) literacy rate (%). Total is the number of people age 15 to 24 years who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement on their everyday life, divided by the population in that age group. Generally, ‘literacy’ also encompasses ‘numeracy’, the ability to make simple arithmetic calculations.

Progress still remains to be made, according to the Save the Children Fund, a United Kingdom-based organization that works to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. In 2016, Save the Children stated that Thailand faces a reading crisis, as nearly a third of Thai 15-year-olds are functionally illiterate.

To be functionally illiterate means to lack the literacy necessary for coping with most jobs and many everyday situations.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)