World Education Day was celebrated recently. It is the responsibility of governments, educational institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations, private sector and other social organizations to assess the progress so far made in the field of education and choke out appropriate programmes to eradicate illiteracy from our global society.

Available statistics on illiteracy is very shocking. 60% of the people are illiterate and a larger number of children who don’t attend school are girls. The majority of illiterate adults are from developing countries. illiteracy is a by product of poverty. Half a century ago, the illiteracy rate was 40% in the world. Now it has decreased by 3%. Yet, it is not a satisfactory progress. In 1995, there were 70% illiterate people in 19 countries. Out of these 19 countries, 14 were from the African countries and 5 were Asian countries. Illiteracy is greater in South Asian countries and Arab countries.

It has been estimated that an additional expense of $60000000 is needed for a world programme to provide elementary education. But it is not impossible to allocate such a large amount, when we compare with the enormous sum of money spent on weapons, advertisements and so on.

Let us state that what is needed is a determination by the political leaders of the world to dedicate themselves to the task of eradicating illiteracy among the people of the world.

An English translation of the Editorial in Thinakkural, a Tamil daily, based in Colombo

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