” ““Literacy supports development” is the subject chosen for the World Literacy Day, promoted by Unesco on September 8th. In this way, as Koïchiro Matsuura, General Manager at Unesco, highlighted in a message for the Day, people will notice “literacy is not just a positive consequence of the development process but also a propeller of change and a tool to achieve more social progress”. Celebrations will be held all over the world tomorrow. “The yearly celebration of the World Literacy Day on September 8th added Matsuura reminds the world of the importance of literacy for people, for families, for communities and for the whole of society. It is also an opportunity to recall that literacy remains a right which is denied to about one fifth of the world’s adult population”. For Matsuura, “the challenge of world literacy is to translate our acknowledgement of the importance of literacy into factual effects so as to give hope to thousands of women, men and children who cannot even read or write their names”. Approximately 781 million adults are estimated to live without having any basic reading or writing skills, and two thirds of these are women. In addition, about 103 million children are denied access to school.
