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In case you are not already deeply excited over it, coming Saturday is International Literacy Day. Yes, the majority of us (quite legitimately too) feel we can do without these ‘days’ (why should romantic love be celebrated only on February 14th?), but next Saturday surely is not a day for cynicism.

Here is why a) we should all support a drive for worldwide literacy b) as the day falls on Saturday we have the time to do something about it i.e take a child to a bookstore and introduce him or her to the delights of reading c) this is the day we can have some fun asking those around us what their favorite word is. After all, this is the day for celebrating the written word. Is it “carminative”, “crepuscular”, “phantasmagoria”, “frangipani”? If you are like those whom I happen to ask the question from, I know you will say no, none of these. You will think for a brief second and say “love” or “peace” is your favorite word. Am I right?

To move onto more serious issues, if you read these first two paragraphs, congratulations! You are one of nearly four billion literate people in the world. You are lucky, because, according to UNESCO one in five adults in the world is not literate. Say that again? Yes, 774 million adults worldwide are illiterate.

What exactly is literacy? According to Kofi Annan it is the bridge from misery to hope. “It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity...literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”

Thus today, the intensity and speed of globalization compounds the urgency of addressing the issue of literacy for all, especially among the poor and marginalized on as many fronts as possible. Sociologists feel members of minority groups, without pen, paper, or literature in print in their own language, or literacy in any other language, are marginalized and certainly on the downside of the so-called digital divide.

Improving the literacy rate of a nation, then, does not simply mean developing the ability of its citizens to read and write. As Paulo Freire wrote in his book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” in the mid 1970s, literacy, is an “active phenomenon, deeply linked to personal and cultural identity. Its power lies not in a received ability to read and write, but rather in an individual’s capacity to put those skills to work in shaping the course of his or her own life.”

In other words, the term literacy should be at once practical and all-encompassing. It should refer to the ability to manipulate any set of codes and conventions-whether it is the words of a language, the symbols in a mathematical system, or images posted to the Internet, to live healthy and productive lives. Thus, genuine literacy involves to quote Freire “reading the word and the world.”

“To acquire literacy is more than to psychologically and mechanically dominate reading and writing techniques. It is to dominate those techniques in terms of consciousness; to understand what one reads and to write what one understands: it is to communicate graphically. Acquiring literacy does not involve memorizing sentences, words or syllables--lifeless objects unconnected to an existential universe--but rather an attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one’s context.”

Paulo Freire, “Education for Critical Consciousness”

“Education brings sustainability to all the development goals, and literacy is the foundation of all learning. It provides individuals with the skills to understand the world and shape it, to participate in democratic processes and have a voice, and also to strengthen their cultural identity. “

Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General

Enter the term, Functional Literacy. According to David Barton, in “Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language”, while the notion of basic literacy is used for the initial learning of reading and writing which adults who have never been to school need to go through, the “term functional literacy is kept for the level of reading and writing which adults are thought to need in modern complex society. Use of the term underlines the idea that although people may have basic levels of literacy, they need a different level to operate in their day-to-day lives.”

Elaborating further, the editors of “Literacy: An International Handbook” in the introductory essay comment, “the increased use of the term literacy stands in for expertise in such areas as computer literacy, geographical literacy, statistical literacy—a veritable host of literacies.” They note that the plural form of the term is used to describe not only these multiple areas of expertise, but also to point out that all definitions of literacy are, to some extent, a function of culture.

Recognizing literacy as a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development for over 40 years now, UNESCO has been celebrating International Literacy Day on September 8.

The theme of International Literacy Day 2012 is Literacy and Peace. The UN explains the connection between the two concepts thus: “Literacy contributes to peace as it brings people closer to attaining individual freedoms and better understanding the world, as well as preventing or resolving conflict. The connection between literacy and peace can be seen by the fact that in unstable democracies or in conflict-affected countries it is harder to establish or sustain a literate environment.”

The importance of literacy is obvious. Everywhere you look, you see words – on signboards, on buses, in books, in this article. Those who cannot read risk becoming isolated from society. Let’s help them. Let’s celebrate literacy on Saturday, and continue the celebrations all year long.

Celebrating the Written Word