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Every year on September 8th, The UN focuses their attention on International Literacy Day. This day is a great reminder to the global community of the important need for literacy of all individuals, within all communities and societies. The UN is particularly dedicated to raising global literacy rates as part of their Sustainable Development Goals and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Through these, the UN encourage universal access to education as a basic necessity in order to adopt a more sustainable future for all.

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed great difficulties to literacy learning and teaching programs across the globe. Throughout many nations, adult literacy programs were notably absent within initial education response plans. This led to many existing programs being suspended, with very few programs operating via TV and radio channels.
Hence, the theme for International Literacy Day 2020 is that of ‘Literacy Teaching and Learning in the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond’. This theme is one in which we can reflect on the impact this has had on youth and adult literacy teaching and learning and the lessons that can be learnt from this to ensure that this key component of sustainable social development retains a prominent position within policy discourse.

UNESCO has also marked a key objective of this day as one to increase the awareness of the need to support educators and the vital role they play in increasing youth and adult literacy. They also highlighted that this can be carried out through better training and support services for educators to allow them to improve their teaching methodologies.

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