International Literacy Day: Narrowing the digital divide amid pandemic scare-In Pics

International Literacy Day, for this year, will be celebrated under the theme ‘Literacy for a human-centered recovery: Narrowing the digital divide’ to draw attention towards the disruption of learning caused by the pandemic.  

The rapid shift to distance learning highlighted the already existing digital divide and unequal distribution of resources that facilitate distance learning.   

Literacy is of importance to all as it empowers individuals and improves their lives by expanding their capabilities to choose a kind of life they can value.  

According to UNESCO, literacy is an integral part of education and lifelong learning premised on humanism and central to a human-centered recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.  

Despite many efforts being made to promote literacy, even today more than a staggering 700 million people are not literate.