Poverty should not be a barrier to education: Saud

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KATHMANDU, Sept. 8: On the occasion of the international literacy day, Minister of State for Education and Sports Narayan Prakash Saud has expressed gratitude to all individuals, institutions and other organisations concerned and involved in informal education and literacy campaign for their contribution from their respective quarters and also wished for further contribution in making the ongoing national literacy campaign a success.

In a message, Mr. Saud has said literacy is the first step of development and a literate person can move ahead successfully in every sector of life. Literacy is the first way to gain knowledge and skills in order to become involved developmental works like education, health, cleanliness, family planning, environment protection and agriculture, he added.

Our prime responsibility is to provide to the disabled, neglected, under privileged, dalit, backward community, nationalities and women who have been deprived of the right to education due to poverty and low level of awareness access to education and include them in the mainstream of development, Mr. Saud said in the message.

Similarly, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura has said at a time when final preparations are being made for the United Nations literacy decade, lessons must be drawn from the experience of the past and think over how poverty can be eradicated when roots of ignorance are left undisturbed.

In his message given on the occasion of the International Literacy Day today, UNESCO Director General Matsuura said that the proposed decade will be crucial for galvanising action to achieve agreed international goals of 50 per cent improvement in level of adults literacy by 2015, especially among women.

Noting that one in five people in the world still do not have access to literacy skills, Mr. Matsuura asked how can we build equitable information societies or thriving democracies if so many remain without the basic tools of literacy?

Stating that it is increasingly recognised today that there are multiple "literacies" which are diverse, have many dimensions and are learned in different ways, he said that each kind of literacy must lead to sustainable and meaningful use- and this must be the goal for the forthcoming literacy decade.
The international literacy day is an opportunity to send a message of hope and encouragement to the estimated 862 million adults, of whom about two-thirds are women, whose illiteracy currently excludes them from full participation in the society, he added.

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