WUNRN
Please seemultiple parts of this WUNRN release on Gender, Literacy, Education, Human Rights.
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The
Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008 Every year, the EFA
Global Monitoring Report assesses where the world stands on its commitment to
provide a basic education to all children, youth and adults by 2015.Developed
by an independent team and published by UNESCO, the report is an
authoritative reference that aims to inform, influence and sustain genuine
commitment towards education for all. *Only
59 countries with data had achieved gender parity in primary and secondary
education by 2005. *Gender equality remains elusive:
Sexual violence, insecure school environments and inadequate sanitation
disproportionately affect girls' self-esteem, participation, and retention.
Textbooks, curricula, and teach attitudes cntinue to reinforce stereotypes
on gender roles in society. *Worldwide, 774 million adults
lack basic literacy skills, as measured by conventional methods. Some 64% of
them are women, a share virtually unchanged since the early 1990's. _________________________________________________________________________ |
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=53811&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
United Nations Literacy Decade 2003 - 2012
UNESCO leads the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) under
the slogan of “Literacy as Freedom”. Launched at UN Headquarters in 2003, the
Decade aims to increase literacy levels and to empower all people everywhere.
In declaring this Decade, the international community recognised that the
promotion of literacy is in the interest of all, as part of efforts towards
peace, respect and exchange in a globalizing world.
____________________________________________________________
Literacy Must Be Recognized as a Right Concludes UNESCO Regional
Conference in
“The Education
for All Global Monitoring Report 2008, launched by UNESCO this week states that
‘Illiteracy is receiving minimal political attention and remains a global
disgrace.’ I firmly endorse this sentiment,” said the Director-General of
UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, at a press conference in
“Literacy is undeniably a right and must be recognized as such,” he said. “The countries of South and South West Asia have certainly made great strides towards building literate societies over the past two decades. Yet even today about 40 percent of the total adult population cannot read or write and the great majority of these people are women.”
According to
UNESCO’s statistics, some 380 million adults throughout South and South-West
Asia do not have basic literacy skills. The world total is 774 million,
although the Global Monitoring Report suggests that the figure may be much
higher. In
The two-day conference, which brought together experts and government representatives from 14 countries in South, South-West and Central Asia, examined the main challenges facing the region, including funding, gender equality and the lack of “literate environments” which encourage parents and children to build their literacy skills. They also looked at practical ways of tackling the problems by analyzing a range of successful programmes and projects and exchanging ideas and experiences on the different issues under discussion.
The participants stressed that literacy must be recognized as a right, and fully integrated into education sector planning with sufficient funding. Pointing out that over two thirds of illiterate adults were women, they underscored the need for literacy policies to address gender disparities. Programmes, they recommended, should be strongly linked to life-skills development, including entrepreneurial and income-generating activities.
The conference also recommended that although governments must take primary responsibility for providing literacy learning opportunities, partnerships with civil society organizations, community-based associations and the private sector also be encouraged. The participants emphasized the importance of greater regional cooperation and collaboration. The international community, they said, also needs to give the issue higher priority.
This was the
fourth in a series of six regional and sub-regional conferences organized by
UNESCO to promote global literacy. The first three took place earlier this year
in
These
initiatives follow the Global Literacy Conference organized by the White House
in
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