International Literacy Day

International Literacy Day serves to recognise the importance of literacy and acknowledge the need to create a globally literate community. Literacy refers to a person's ability to read or write, an ability that connects and empowers people, allowing them to communicate and interact with the world, and one that the United Nations considers to be a basic human right. Today, approximately 16% of the world's population, two-thirds of which is female, is unable to read or write at a basic level in their native languages.

UNESCO stressed the importance of literacy as the most powerful accelerator of sustainable development and pledged that by 2030, the organisation will ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.