International Literacy Day

  More than four decades of experience in the use of digital technology in literacy promotion has shown that positive results can be achieved when actors join hands prudently and uphold the right to literacy and education as a guiding principle as put forward by the International Commission on the Futures ofEducation and the Transforming Education Summit (TES) convened by the United Nations SecretaryGeneral (New York, September 2022). The importance of the principles of equity, equality, and nondiscrimination has also been stressed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education , UNESCO and experts. Also highlighted is the centrality of context-specific, culturally relevant, human-centred approaches that foster human agency and pay heed to the impact on the environment, rather than techno-centric ones. There is a variety of assertions regarding the extent to which technology can be beneficial for literacy teaching and learning, interventions, programme management and mon...

  Promoting literacy as part of the right to education requires ensuring that everyone has access to meaningful lifelong literacy learning opportunities without discrimination and achieves relevant functional literacy in their unique socio-economic, political, cultural, and linguistic contexts as a common good. This can be achieved, for instance, through integrating literacy into national policies and strategies for technology-empowered lifelong learning , literacy provision in multiple learning spaces in formal, non-formal and informal settings linked with national norms and frameworks (e.g. competencies, qualifications and certification), enhancing capacities of literacy educators and other professionals , and continuous monitoring and evaluation of literacy and the use of digital solutions to inform future policies, actions and practice. Collaboration and partnerships within and beyond the education sector are essential, especially where the right to literacy and education...