Sonia Gandhi's Address at the UNESCO Regional Conference in Support of Global Literacy 29-11-2007
Mr Koichiro Matsuura,
Mrs Rajapakse,
Mr Arjun Singh,
Mrs Purandeshwari,
Mr Fatmi,
Mrs Shanta Sinha,
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Friends.
It is indeed an honour for India to host this ?UNESCO Regional Conference in support of Global Literacy?. I too extend a very warm welcome to you all.
Our meeting today comes at an opportune time. The global community is engaged in making a mid-term assessment of the charter adopted at the World Conference in 1990 to ensure Education For All by 2015. To support this endeavour, a decade later, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously agreed to establish the UN Literacy Decade, 2003 ? 2012, to focus on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of societies, including women.
These are ambitious goals - we still have a long way to go before we fulfill them. But they are goals that must remain inviolate, goals that must be achieved, within the time frame set for ourselves. We recognize that it is unacceptable to have illiteracy on the scale we still have today.
Literacy is a basic human right, a fundamental entitlement.
Literacy is a pre-requisite for social transformation. It enables people to be aware of and assert their rights.
It is a force against superstition and bigotry. It is a great liberator.
Literacy is basic to gender equality. It bridges the gender divide.
Literacy is a necessary tool for economic empowerment. It is a critical contributor to rapid economic growth, to equitable, inclusive economic and social development. It is the very cornerstone of national progress, and must always remain so.
This gathering represents a rich confluence of cultures, ethnicities and religious beliefs. It also represents a rich canvas of experience. Amongst us are the representatives of many countries - which may be small in size, but that have literacy rates of 90% or more. Together with India, we also have representatives of countries which contribute heavily to the world pool of illiterates. In our midst there are a few countries where heroic efforts are being made, to spread education and literacy, in the most difficult of circumstances. We have much to learn from each other. We must also be open to best practices from other parts of the developing world.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Adult literacy programmes have always been part of our planning in India. But it was in 1986 that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi gave a whole new impetus to it when he launched the National Literacy Mission. He believed that India should take advantage of all that modern science and technology has to offer, so as to accelerate the achievement of universal literacy.
The Mission galvanized the country. For the first time, literacy became a mass movement and a very large number of civil society organizations became partners of government. As many as 12 million volunteers reached 150 million new learners, a stupendous feat by any reckoning.
The results were impressive. Between 1981 and 1991, India?s literacy rate had climbed from around 44% to about 52%. And as the National Literacy Mission gathered momentum between 1991 and 2001 when we had the last Census, the literacy rate increased from 52% to 65%.
Of course, we still have regional variations.
In a few states, literacy levels are on par with those prevailing in developed countries. But in a number of others, female literacy particularly, is still very low.
The National Literacy Mission is now being given a new direction. The objectives are to bring a sharper emphasis on female literacy in poorer areas and amongst disadvantaged communities, to effect convergence of existing schemes and programmes, to link literacy to improved livelihood and career opportunities, particularly in the knowledge economy. The Mission will be implemented by institutions of local self governments, to ensure greater accountability and responsiveness.
Your discussions are going to be largely on adult literacy.
Its obvious cause is lack of education in the early years.
There is no greater gift bestowed on us than our children, and no greater responsibility placed on us than to ensure their education right from the very beginning.
That is why India has embarked on a very ambitious programme to universalize elementary education by 2010.
Our challenge is not just to ensure full enrollment.
It is also to ensure that drop-out rates, which are very high, are reduced significantly.
It is also to ensure that quality education is imparted.
A cooked ?mid-day meal? programme is an integral part of this strategy. Today, some 120 million children are being fed daily in schools. This has helped in retaining them in the primary education system. The numbers, as you can see, are truly staggering.
We have increased public investment in elementary education manifold. But money alone cannot guarantee the outcomes we seek. As in the case of adult literacy, people?s participation, involvement of local self-government institutions, of self-help groups and of social action networks are critical to success.
The road ahead is not without difficulties.
The three countries of South Asia, particularly, - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh- have to redouble their efforts to eradicate illiteracy. With technology improving and diffusing at an increasingly faster pace and becoming so pervasive in our lives, the inability to read and write causes greater exclusion, from the benefits of economic growth and the information revolution. The Digital Divide cannot be allowed to stratify our societies any further than they already are, by sharp differences in literacy levels. Indeed, the new information technologies, creatively used and purposefully deployed, can themselves help vastly to extend the reach of literacy campaigns as well as to improve the quality of instruction in schools.
The heavy incidence of unemployment, has given new urgency, to forging a closer link between education and job opportunities. As we look to the future, vocational education must get increased importance. Jobs matter, and matter crucially. Education must therefore equip people with the ability to acquire new skills from time to time.
We have pledged ourselves to the Millennium Development Goals.
Those goals have to be achieved. There is simply no alternative for our nations if we are to compete and prosper in an age of globalization. Universal literacy is the bedrock of a knowledge society.
We are at a moment of convergence between technological development and educational need, as well as between educational need and political will. Let us grasp this moment.
Through the instrument of literacy and education for all, let us work together to ensure that our societies remain enriched by the best traditions of their own heritage and yet open to the light of science and progressive thought; that our societies are freed from poverty, from prejudice; from oppression, discrimination, inequality and violence.
I wish your deliberations all success and a pleasant stay here.
Thank you.
Mr Koichiro Matsuura,
Mrs Rajapakse,
Mr Arjun Singh,
Mrs Purandeshwari,
Mr Fatmi,
Mrs Shanta Sinha,
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Friends.
It is indeed an honour for India to host this ?UNESCO Regional Conference in support of Global Literacy?. I too extend a very warm welcome to you all.
Our meeting today comes at an opportune time. The global community is engaged in making a mid-term assessment of the charter adopted at the World Conference in 1990 to ensure Education For All by 2015. To support this endeavour, a decade later, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously agreed to establish the UN Literacy Decade, 2003 ? 2012, to focus on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of societies, including women.
These are ambitious goals - we still have a long way to go before we fulfill them. But they are goals that must remain inviolate, goals that must be achieved, within the time frame set for ourselves. We recognize that it is unacceptable to have illiteracy on the scale we still have today.
Literacy is a basic human right, a fundamental entitlement.
Literacy is a pre-requisite for social transformation. It enables people to be aware of and assert their rights.
It is a force against superstition and bigotry. It is a great liberator.
Literacy is basic to gender equality. It bridges the gender divide.
Literacy is a necessary tool for economic empowerment. It is a critical contributor to rapid economic growth, to equitable, inclusive economic and social development. It is the very cornerstone of national progress, and must always remain so.
This gathering represents a rich confluence of cultures, ethnicities and religious beliefs. It also represents a rich canvas of experience. Amongst us are the representatives of many countries - which may be small in size, but that have literacy rates of 90% or more. Together with India, we also have representatives of countries which contribute heavily to the world pool of illiterates. In our midst there are a few countries where heroic efforts are being made, to spread education and literacy, in the most difficult of circumstances. We have much to learn from each other. We must also be open to best practices from other parts of the developing world.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Adult literacy programmes have always been part of our planning in India. But it was in 1986 that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi gave a whole new impetus to it when he launched the National Literacy Mission. He believed that India should take advantage of all that modern science and technology has to offer, so as to accelerate the achievement of universal literacy.
The Mission galvanized the country. For the first time, literacy became a mass movement and a very large number of civil society organizations became partners of government. As many as 12 million volunteers reached 150 million new learners, a stupendous feat by any reckoning.
The results were impressive. Between 1981 and 1991, India?s literacy rate had climbed from around 44% to about 52%. And as the National Literacy Mission gathered momentum between 1991 and 2001 when we had the last Census, the literacy rate increased from 52% to 65%.
Of course, we still have regional variations.
In a few states, literacy levels are on par with those prevailing in developed countries. But in a number of others, female literacy particularly, is still very low.
The National Literacy Mission is now being given a new direction. The objectives are to bring a sharper emphasis on female literacy in poorer areas and amongst disadvantaged communities, to effect convergence of existing schemes and programmes, to link literacy to improved livelihood and career opportunities, particularly in the knowledge economy. The Mission will be implemented by institutions of local self governments, to ensure greater accountability and responsiveness.
Your discussions are going to be largely on adult literacy.
Its obvious cause is lack of education in the early years.
There is no greater gift bestowed on us than our children, and no greater responsibility placed on us than to ensure their education right from the very beginning.
That is why India has embarked on a very ambitious programme to universalize elementary education by 2010.
Our challenge is not just to ensure full enrollment.
It is also to ensure that drop-out rates, which are very high, are reduced significantly.
It is also to ensure that quality education is imparted.
A cooked ?mid-day meal? programme is an integral part of this strategy. Today, some 120 million children are being fed daily in schools. This has helped in retaining them in the primary education system. The numbers, as you can see, are truly staggering.
We have increased public investment in elementary education manifold. But money alone cannot guarantee the outcomes we seek. As in the case of adult literacy, people?s participation, involvement of local self-government institutions, of self-help groups and of social action networks are critical to success.
The road ahead is not without difficulties.
The three countries of South Asia, particularly, - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh- have to redouble their efforts to eradicate illiteracy. With technology improving and diffusing at an increasingly faster pace and becoming so pervasive in our lives, the inability to read and write causes greater exclusion, from the benefits of economic growth and the information revolution. The Digital Divide cannot be allowed to stratify our societies any further than they already are, by sharp differences in literacy levels. Indeed, the new information technologies, creatively used and purposefully deployed, can themselves help vastly to extend the reach of literacy campaigns as well as to improve the quality of instruction in schools.
The heavy incidence of unemployment, has given new urgency, to forging a closer link between education and job opportunities. As we look to the future, vocational education must get increased importance. Jobs matter, and matter crucially. Education must therefore equip people with the ability to acquire new skills from time to time.
We have pledged ourselves to the Millennium Development Goals.
Those goals have to be achieved. There is simply no alternative for our nations if we are to compete and prosper in an age of globalization. Universal literacy is the bedrock of a knowledge society.
We are at a moment of convergence between technological development and educational need, as well as between educational need and political will. Let us grasp this moment.
Through the instrument of literacy and education for all, let us work together to ensure that our societies remain enriched by the best traditions of their own heritage and yet open to the light of science and progressive thought; that our societies are freed from poverty, from prejudice; from oppression, discrimination, inequality and violence.
I wish your deliberations all success and a pleasant stay here.
Thank you.
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