The civilized world is fighting for the equality and well-being of people, the purity of nature, the preservation of all the diversity of the animal and plant world of the Earth. In order to attract public attention to difficulties, special world holidays are being established. Their initiators are the UN, international associations, organizations, institutions. The article will tell you what International Literacy Day is.
Literacy concept
The word "literacy" has Greek roots and literally means "reading and writing." The dictionary defines a person’s literacy as the ability to write without errors, fluently read and correctly express their thoughts in a conversation. All these skills allow you to acquire new knowledge, improve, and benefit society.
Urgency of the problem
Why did you need International Literacy Day? States struggling with the ignorance of their own citizens are everywhere introducing training programs. People themselves understand how important education is, because it helps to find a place in life, and therefore they independently master the sciences.
Nevertheless, today more than seven hundred million illiterate and completely illiterate people live in the world. There are those who have never seen books. Among them, more than seventy million children. This problem is especially relevant in third world countries with a low level of economic development, where there are wars and civil unrest.
If in Europe, the Russian Federation, the United States there is no such problem, then in Africa, some countries of Asia, Latin America, most of the population is completely illiterate, even universal access to primary education is not ensured here, there is discrimination based on gender, when girls and women are suspended from training.
All this served as a prerequisite for the establishment of the International Literacy Day .
A brief history of the holiday
September 8, 1965 in Tehran, the capital of Iran, the World Conference was held, which brought together education ministers from around the planet. The theme of the conference was the elimination of illiteracy in the world, raising the total level of education. Discussed methods and measures to achieve the goals. Some of the most important are those that focus on children and youth. It is recommended that International Literacy Day be held at school, in primary and high school. The child must learn that being literate is useful and prestigious, that science opens the door to a brighter future, there is an incentive to master new knowledge.
The day of the conference - September 8 - is approved as World Literacy Day.
The UN General Assembly declared the Literacy Decade from 2003 to 2013. During this period, world-wide conferences were held annually on a wide variety of topics: Literacy and Health, Literacy and Peace, The Importance of Literacy for Women, and others.
When celebrated
Everyone is celebrating International Literacy Day every year on September 8th. It was approved by UNESCO in 1966. The holiday took root, and in 2015 they celebrated the fiftieth, anniversary International Literacy Day.
This day is not marked in red on the Russian calendar, but the importance of it is understood by all educated people, therefore it is noted in educational institutions at all levels - pre-school, school, secondary and higher, propagandized in offices and scientific institutions.
In order to make events accessible to the whole population, they hold the International Literacy Day in the library, art houses, movie theater lobby and other public places.
Traditions
Not only in Russia but also in Kazakhstan and Ukraine such events for the International Literacy Day as olympiads, various contests and quizzes, open lessons, the main purpose of which is to highlight the most literate and diligent pupils and students, have already become traditional. Lecturers make presentations and reports highlighting the problems of illiteracy, the consequences of this phenomenon and ways to overcome it. Leaflets calling for self-development are distributed among the population. Awarding of outstanding teachers is held everywhere.
How to become literate yourself
There are such good proverbs: "It’s always useful to study well," "Whoever is in science is not to be lost," "They do not write with pen, but with the mind." They reflect popular beliefs about how important it is to acquire new knowledge.
To achieve good results along this path, it is important:
- Read a lot of good literature. Not necessarily scientific, even if it is an adventure, a fantasy or a detective story, it is important that their quality be high. Therefore, it is best to read the classics of the genre.
- Look in the dictionary more often to learn the meaning of new words.
- Try to clear your speech from slang, and even more so from profanity.
- Do not be offended if someone corrects the mistakes of your speech or letter.
- Solve crosswords and puzzles. This will not increase literacy, but will ultimately contribute to the development of intelligence and memory.