World Literacy Day: UNESCO Warns of Global Inequality and Digital Transformation

With the decision of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1966, September 8 is celebrated as "World Literacy Day".

Within the scope of the day, which is celebrated every year with various programs, various activities are organized to emphasize the importance of literacy for individuals and societies and to raise awareness about the problems related to the subject.

"World Literacy Day", celebrated for the 60th time this year, will be held in Mexico on September 8-9 with the theme "Literacy for People, Planet and Prosperity".

At the meeting to be held within the scope of the program, it is expected that the draft of UNESCO's "Global Alliance Strategy for Literacy" will be created, as well as 6 "International Literacy Awards" will be presented to their winners.

In some countries, 4 out of every 10 children do not have minimum reading skills

Literacy, one of the fundamental human rights, also paves the way for a person to benefit from other rights and freedoms.

Literacy expands a person's knowledge, skills and values, and with these accumulations, it contributes to the development of a society free of lasting peace, equality and discrimination.

According to UNESCO data, the rate of literate adults, which was 65 percent in 1975, has increased to 88 percent today, but despite this development, approximately 739 million young people and adults around the world are still not at the basic literacy level.

225 million of illiterate adults are in Sub-Saharan Africa and 347 million in South Asia. These two regions are home to more than 77 percent of the world's illiterate adult population.

On the other hand, 63 percent of the illiterate adult population is women. In low- and middle-income countries, 4 out of every 10 children cannot reach the minimum level of reading skills.

Inequality of access to technologies such as artificial intelligence could negatively impact the literacy gap

According to the statement made by UNESCO, the scope of the concept of literacy is changing rapidly with technological developments that lead to digitalization, including artificial intelligence.

This change is reshaping the design and implementation of literacy policies, systems, and programs.

However, while technological developments lead to this change, they reveal the need for a solid foundation of literacy.

UNESCO believes that artificial intelligence has the potential to overcome current challenges in education, improve teaching processes and accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4, but these advances bring with them many risks and challenges, such as inequality of access to technology, policy debates and the deepening of the literacy gap.

In UNESCO's 2025 report, it was stated that artificial intelligence has shaped many fields, but this transformation has occurred "unfairly".

The report noted that one-third of the world does not have access to the internet, and only people with the infrastructure, language advantage and paid subscriptions can access the most advanced artificial intelligence models.

In this context, UNESCO calls for addressing the current and future transformations caused by artificial intelligence in the field of education from different perspectives and developing ethical and common solutions.