Happy International Literacy Day!

The International Literacy Day reminds us the importance of literacy which is an essential prerequisite skill at any age, for future learning, personal growth, and active citizenship. Despite progress made in the last 50 years, literacy challenges persist. A great number of children, youth and adults lack functional literacy skills.

It is estimated that 387 million or 56% of children of primary school age do not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading.^[1] Unless children learn to read and write in school, they will join the millions of illiterate adults who cannot read a newspaper or a prescription, or fill in a job application form. Globally, around 772.7 million youth and adults (people older than 15) still cannot read and write.^[2] Two-thirds of them are women.^[3]

The past legacy of limited education opportunities for women creates a huge gender gap in adult literacy. While the global adult literacy rate increased from 81.5% to 86.3% worldwide between 2000 and 2018^[4], the share of women in the total population of adult illiterates has remained constant around 63%^[5].

EU-funded education interventions support quality education and development of basic literacy and numeracy skills in partner countries. In countries receiving EU budget support, girl primary school completion has increased (from 69 % to 88 % between 2000 and 2017) and women illiteracy has been brought down (from 39 % to 22 % over the same period).^[6]

The EU Budget Support to Morocco specifically focuses on literacy. The EU has been supporting Morocco in implementing its strategy for adult literacy through a partnership with the Moroccan government over the past decade. More than 6 million people have benefited from literacy programmes developed as part of this strategy, prioritising women and rural population. Women make up approximately 80% of the learners participating in these programmes every year. More than 14 000 literacy instructors were trained. Illiteracy rate in Morocco which was 43% in 2004, dropped to 38% in 2014. The EU also has a long-term partnership with the Ministry of Education in Morocco, supporting the reinforcement of the education system, notably aiming at increasing the retention of children in school.

The government of Morocco aims to reduce the illiteracy to 20% by 2021 and to 10% in 2026. The aim is to provide 1.050.000 persons each year with literacy training, between 2017-2021.

Sources:

[1] GEM Report 2019: Migration, displacement and education, p. 125 https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2019/migration

[2] UNESCO UIS Statistics, Adult Illiterate Population +15 years (both sexes) tab, latest data from 2018 http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=167

[3] UNESCO UIS Statistics, Adult Illiterate Population +15 years (% of female) tab http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=167

[4] UNESCO UIS Statistics, Literacy Rate http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=166

[5] GEM Gender Report 2018, p. 18 https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/261593E.pdf

[6] DG DEVCO, Budget Support: Trends and Results 2019, p. 8 https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/system/files/budget-support-trends-and-results_en.pdf