Great Plains College, in partnership with the Southwest Literacy Committee, proudly participated in the campaign to recognized International Literacy Day on Sept. 8.
The College’s Literacy Committee and other agencies in the community celebrated lifelong learning in Southwest Saskatchewan and specifically the aims of International Literacy Day last Thursday.
“According to the Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning Survey released in 2005, literacy is connected to some of the key social challenges of our time – unemployment, poverty, health, integrating newcomers, child well-being, and more,” explained Bula Ghosh, Basic Education coordinator at the Great Plains College campus in Swift Current. “Four out of 10 Canadians do not have the literacy skills they need to meet the ever increasing demands of today’s life in a knowledge-based economy.”
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization estimates there are 793 illiterate adults worldwide. The United Nations declared 2001 to 2010 as a literacy decade in order to reaffirm the importance of literacy in our global society and aim towards increasing the level of functional literates by 50 per cent.
Locally, International Literacy Day provided regional agencies a chance to give a voice to adult learners and highlight the importance of recognizing their potential for offering change and improving their personal, professional, political, economic, social and cultural development. Globally, the day was an opportunity to reach out to potential learners and under privilege groups to increase the number of adults engaged in learning.
