Global countries have been celebrating International Literacy Day since 1967 as part of reminding the public of the importance of literacy. The international community tries to raise a more literate and sustainable society as a matter of dignity and human rights.
In Myanmar, the 3-Rs courses — reading, writing and arithmetic — were conducted as literacy campaigns across the nation to raise the literacy rate so as to broaden the horizon of the people in order to analyze what is wrong and what is right.
From the 1970s, young people especially university students and those who had already passed the basic education high school examination joined the literacy campaign, going right down to the grassroots level for volunteering to teach the people to be literate.
Myanmar’s literacy campaign did not need permanent classrooms but learning stations for local people. Volunteer teachers lured them to join the 3-Rs activities, leaving a reading, writing and arithmetic legacy to them. Those volunteers left respective societies higher whenever the literacy campaigns were completed.
Consequently, families of those literates who tasted the fruits of literacy comprehensively understood how to nurture and encourage their offspring to become educated persons. Only when these families are capable of widening their scopes based on literacy will their future be brighter. Actually, literacy campaigns were launched in Myanmar in successive eras.
Myanmar gained Mohammad Riza Pahlavi Prize in 1971 and the Noma Prize in 1983 presented by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in honour of its strenuous efforts in the campaign. Up to now, these prizes are symbols of Myanmar’s endeavours to fight the past illiteracy situation.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, include literacy as a major component. One of the aims of Sustainable Development Goal Four is to ensure that all young people obtain reading and numeracy, as well as those adults who lack these abilities are allowed to learn them.
Now, everybody in Myanmar knows what way of life is the best and how to choose the best way and how to take it. Myanmar people need to practically take the measures of raising the literacy rate identified as nation-building endeavours through education for enjoying a better society.
Now, everybody in Myanmar knows what way of life is the best and how to choose the best way and how to take it. Myanmar people need to practically take the measures of raising the literacy rate identified as nation-building endeavours through education for enjoying a better society. They all need to acknowledge International Literacy Day in annual celebrations, without derailing from the correct way to an educated society by sharing knowledge and learning practices with each other forever.
