By KUNA,
Paris : UNESCO will be organizing a meeting for top decision makers and experts from 30 countries and the international community in Azerbaijan on May 14 to address the literacy and adult education challenges specific to Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
According to UNESCO, improved literacy is “one of the keys to developing knowledge societies and boosting economic competitiveness.” It indicated that although the literacy rate in Europe is high, there continues to be “serious disparities.” The 2008 Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report stated that nine million adults in Central and Eastern Europe can neither read nor write.
“Contrary to the commonly held assumption that only minority groups are affected, low levels of literacy touch mainstream European populations. Too many adults still fail to acquire even basic skills, with enormous effects on their individual lives and on their countries’ economic and social well-being, ” UNESCO stressed.
The two-day conference will focus on several topics; the expanded concept of literacy in today’s world, evaluation of literacy levels, pedagogical approaches for promoting quality basic learning and responses to new demands through legislative and institutional arrangements.
Up to 200 participants, including First Ladies, education ministers, decision-makers, representatives of civil society, NGOs and universities, education professionals, members of bilateral and multilateral organizations will take part in the conference.
UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, First Lady of Azerbaijan and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva and Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands are expected to speak at the opening of the conference.
The conference, entitled “Addressing Literacy Challenges in Europe with a sub-regional focus: Building Partnerships and Promoting Innovative Approaches, ” is the fifth of a series of six regional and sub-regional conferences in support of global literacy, within the framework of the UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012) and UNESCO’s Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE).
These conferences extend the work of the White House Conference on Global Literacy organized in New York in September 2006, hosted by US First Lady Laura Bush, Honorary Ambassador of the UN Literacy Decade. The earlier conferences took place in Doha, Beijing, Bamako (Mali) and New Delhi in 2007, where the final one will be held in Mexico later this year.