The International Literacy Day is celebrated all around the world on 8th September. Fifty years ago, UNESCO officially proclaimed 8th September as International Literacy Day to actively mobilize the international community and to promote literacy as an instrument to empower individuals, communities and societies.
Education transforms lives and is at the heart of UNESCO’s mission to build peace, eradicate poverty and drive sustainable development. Its work encompasses educational development from pre-school to higher education and beyond. Themes include global citizenship and sustainable development, human rights and gender equality, whereas, the education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Literacy is at the heart of sustainable development and literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility. So ‘TEACH ONE EACH ONE’ has to be our motto.
Though the UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has attained one of the highest literacy in the country at 86.6 %, but we have to work hard to achieve more and to ensure every single person becomes literate. Therefore, the International Literacy Day serves to remind us that wherever we are, however much we know, there is always more to learn.
Sd/-
Prof. Jagdish Mukhi
Lieutenant Governor
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
