India’s Saakshar Bharat Mission has offices and schools in 25 regions across the country, with more than 10 million people, mostly women, benefiting from the program every year. The Chadian program, meanwhile, has been recognized for its effort to educate the Gueran language and standardizing it. (image credit: jamorcillov @ flickr)
SEOUL, Korea, Sep 06 (Korea Bizwire) – Upcoming September 8 is the 48th International Literacy Day as proclaimed by UNESCO in 1965. To commemorate the anniversary, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris will hold a variety of events to remind us of the importance of literacy and adult education. One of such events will be a ceremony organized by the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize. The Korean government created the award in 1989 to honor the outstanding contribution made to literacy by Sejong the Great in the early 15th century who created the Korean alphabet Hangul.
For the past 20 or so years, a total of 42 organizations across the world, in countries like Jordan, Tunisia, Ecuador, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Peru, the Philippines, Togo, Indonesia, and Rwanda, have been given the award for their work in reducing illiteracy.
This year, two organizations from India and Chad, Saakshar Bharat Mission (a program pioneered by the Indian National Literacy Mission Authority) and the Program Mother Tongue Literacy (being administered in the Guera district in the Central African nation) will be given the honor.
India’s Saakshar Bharat Mission has offices and schools in 25 regions across the country, with more than 10 million people, mostly women, benefiting from the program every year. The Chadian program, meanwhile, has been recognized for its effort to educate the Gueran language and standardizing it. For two years between 2012 and 2013, the program has educated 6,557 students of which 5,356 were women. This year’s King Sejong Literacy Prize award ceremony will be held at 6:30 pm on September 9 at Paris’ UNESCO head office.
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