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Contact:
John Emmanuel
Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - The Education Sub-Committee of the St. Lucia
National Commission for UNESCO is laying the ground work for the launch here of
a United Nations initiative, designating 2003-2012 as the Literacy Decade. The
theme for the biennium 2003-2004 is “Literacy and Gender.”
The launching will encompass several activities aimed at promoting literacy
nationwide, among these an exhibition and a two-day symposium. Secretary General
of the St. Lucia National Commission for UNESCO Paule Turnmel-John says locally
a sub-theme has been chosen, “Literacy and Gender: A National Concern,” which
would permeate the planned activities.
“The aims of this decade are to extend the use of literacy to those who do not
currently have access to it,” said Turnmel-John. The decade will focus on the
needs of adults with the goal that people everywhere should be able to use
literacy to communicate within their own community and within the wider society
and beyond. She noted, “We have noticed that literacy efforts have failed to
reach the poorest and most marginalized groups of people and the decade will in
particular address such groups under the banner of literacy for all, voice for
all, learning for all.”
United Nations surveys indicate that one in five persons over the age of fifteen
is unable to communicate via the written word or play any significant part in
the current literacy environment. The Education for All (EFA) Global Management
Report of 2002 spelt out the scope of that challenge with over 861 million
people being without access to literacy. Two-thirds of that number representing
women.
The February fourth and fifth 2004 symposium will address literacy as a social
and will seek to heighten national consciousness of the changing trends in the
concept of learning in today’s world. Over the two days a number of
presentations on key areas will be made, followed by a round-table discussion.
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