8TH SEPTEMBER, 2011: INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY

Illiteracy is a crucial problem that affects all corners of the earth it has no boundaries and exists among every ace, age group, and economic class. According to the UNESCO statistics, one out of five adults is illiterate while 67.4 illion children are either out of school or lack sufficient education.

 About 131 million youths aged between 15 to 24 lack basic reading and writing skills. Among many of the issues in literacy is gender disparity. Majority of females lack education as compared to the male gender. Everyone needs some basic education and has the right to it. Human ights to access education must be exercised by all institutions with governments enforcing such laws. Knowledge is power when used to its full potential.

To the societies, literacy is essential for the development and economic growth of our nations. We need to be able to read and write to get through our important everyday tasks, excelling in school and be able to secure jobs. Literacy opens up a window of opportunities to those who have it. It provides people with the option of becoming members of a self-confident and informed populace that can understand issues, represent selves, take responsibility for self-improvement and family health, and better participate in civic affairs.

These are among the more priceless payoffs of literacy. It is also a vehicle for tackling communicable diseases such as HIV, vercoming poverty and a tool for achieving Millennium development goals. Being the youth organization that we are, we are very much interested in investing into the education of youth and raising awareness to the issues of concern by all means. On this day, World Assembly of Youth would like, not only to give insight on literacy issues but to also encourage everyone especially the youth to pursue after knowledge and hold on to it in order to preserve human potential.

May all be empowered with knowledge. Everyone can make a contribution to the rise of literacy rates.