“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” – Mark Twain

– Happy International Literacy Day to all the readers of DayTodayGK

International Literacy Day is observed across the world on 8 September. The Theme for 2015 is “literacy and sustainable societies”. The day was designated as such by UNESCO and first observed in 1966. The day is observed to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. A special event has been organized on 8-9 September 2015 at UNESCO Headquarters in the presence of the Director-General of UNESCO. It intends to prepare the ground for literacy action in the post-2015 era.

Points to Note

• By 2015, the international community pledged to reduce adult illiteracy rates by 50% compared to 2000 levels as part of the Education for All Goals.
• While the number of illiterate people has steadily fallen, data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) show that 757 million adults and 115 million youths still lack basic reading and writing skills.
• As per Population Census of India 2011, the Literacy rate of India has shown as improvement of almost 9 percent. It has gone up to 74.04% in 2011 from 65.38% in 2001.

Test Your Knowledge

In India, the literacy rate is low in which state?