On the occasion of International Literacy Day, proclaimed by the United Nations in 1966, there will be pronouncements with much fanfare about the vital role of literacy in national development and the progress that has been made. Meanwhile, Unesco has been reporting since the 1990s that about 780 million adults in the world remain non-literate—any progress made since then is apparently offset by population growth.

The Bangladesh government reported a precise adult literacy rate of 74.7 percent in 2019. Educationists remain sceptical about the real numbers of adults and youth in Bangladesh—as well as in the world—who have the functional and sustainable literacy skills that make a difference in their lives. The effort and the goal of meaningful mass literacy appear to remain mired in shaky political commitments and the consequent policy and programmes that cannot succeed.

Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator and author of the "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," said that literacy should enable learners to read the world, not just the word. Freire spent most of his life in exile from Brazil because of his advocacy for "conscientisation" of the literacy learner. The literacy managers of the world have remained focused on the "word"—the mechanics of decoding the alphabet—and they count literacy results accordingly. This mechanical approach does not motivate and inspire the learners—children or adults.

At Unesco's birth after the Second World War, its very first general conference, held in 1946, discussed the idea of education as the means to fight poverty and promote well-being of people. In 1947, an ambitious literacy programme titled "Fundamental Education" was announced as a necessary precondition for the maintenance of international peace and the growth of economic prosperity. The history of how this innocuous initiative became caught in Cold War diplomacy and failed to achieve its mission has come to light in part on the basis of declassified US Department of State records [Charles Dorn and Kristen Ghodsee (2012). "The Cold War Politicization of Literacy: Communism, UNESCO, and the World Bank"].

https://www.thedailystar.net/views/opinion/news/the-politics-mass-literacy-where-we-stand-2170786

"When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?" Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told "60 Minutes" last week. Being born and raised in Cuba — enjoying that so-called socialist paradise until I came to the United States as a political refugee in 2009 — I would almost agree, but I know better.

I was forced to learn how to read and write by teachers who brainwashed me while teaching me how to write the “F” for “Fidel,” the “C” for “Castro” and so on. The "education" under a socialist regime is probably the most malicious of their programs, because it is — to the eyes of people like Sanders — an unalloyed, irreproachable social good, and yet it is one of the most essential tools of indoctrination and repression. There, according to Che Guevara’s teachings, as a small child I was taught to hate different ideas, looks and behaviors.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/yes-bernie-sanders-castro-s-literacy-program-was-bad-thing-ncna1145001

>>15919650

Pence’s visit comes as the Biden administration is said to be exploring ways to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which voted for a Palestinian resolution in 2017 that declared the Tomb of the Patriarchs a Palestinian world heritage site in danger.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/biden-admin-wants-back-in-with-unesco

>>15919792

PARIS — The United States and Israel officially quit the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias.

The withdrawal is mainly procedural yet serves a new blow to UNESCO, co-founded by the U.S. after World War II to foster peace.

The Trump administration filed its notice to withdraw in October 2017 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed suit.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-and-israel-officially-withdraw-from-unesco