UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC
Address by H. E. Professor Michael Omolewa
Your Excellency, the Minister of Education for
____
AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)
President of the General Conference of UNESCO
Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria to UNESCO
during International Literacy Day
Cape Town, South Africa
8 September, 2004
South Africa, Mrs. Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
Brothers and Sisters
Dear Friends
It is always a pleasure to come back home to Africa as the representative of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization!
I should like to thank the Government of South Africa, the City of Cape Town and
the UNESCO Institute for Education for organising this years’ Adult Learners
Week as well as for inviting to attend this years events – especially here in Cape
Town, as South Africa celebrates ten years of freedom. I am sure you all know that
"Literacy as Freedom" is the theme of the United Nations Literacy Decade. So it is
especially fitting that we celebrate both events here in South Africa and I thank
God for allowing me the privilege to be amongst my brothers and sisters this
evening. Also, I bring you warm greetings from UNESCO’s Director-General, Mr
Koïchiro Matsuura, and the Chairman of the Executive Board, Mr. Hans-Heinrich
Wrede. I should like to especially thank the organizers of this gala event for the
wonderful time we are having here thus far and, I can assure you Ladies and
Gentlemen, that your dinner will not get too cold whilst you listen to my short
presentation!
Indeed, literacy is one of the fundamental instruments of freedom. One of the
constraints for development in Africa is illiteracy. A large number of illiterates
are not able to participate in the process of dialogue that is democracy. In fact,
there are shortfalls in every walk of African life – there is a lack of qualified
people in the offices, on construction sites, in the factories and in the boardrooms.
This must cease to be our reality.
The UN Literacy Decade Resolution states that:
Literacy is crucial to the acquisition, by every child, youth and adult, of
essential life skills that enable them to address the challenges they can
face in life, and represents an essential step in basic education, which is
an indispensable means for effective participation in the societies and
economies of the twenty-first century.
Indeed, in developed countries huge investments have been made for several
decades to combat illiteracy – these investments have paid handsomely for
themselves.
UNESCO’s strategy for Literacy for All is linked to the fact that literacy is the
key to basic education, and to social and human development. We think that it is
essential for lifelong learning and is a lifelong learning process in itself.
Literacy concerns children, young people and adults, men and women alike. The
current Programme and Budget of the Organization states that:
“Despite the progress made in the past decade in basic education,
the World Education Forum in Dakar revealed the magnitude and
complexity of the challenge posed to the world in striving for
the goal of literacy for all. Although many societies are being
transformed into knowledge societies, the skills required become
more complex, it is estimated that by the year 2010 one in six
adults will (still) be illiterate.”
In fact, Ladies and Gentlemen, we at UNESCO think that we need to build literate
families, literate communities and literate societies in order to see real development
in the 21st Century and to curb this unfortunately rather unchanging statistic.
Since at least 1965, UNESCO has been promoting the notion of “functional
literacy” – and here I mean that learning and living happen at the same time,
thereby ensuring that an increase in income and a better standard of living should
be the logical result of greater literacy and greater capacity to participate in society.
I recall that the right to adult literacy and adult education was part of the struggle
for democracy in South Africa. It is encouraging to note that the right to adult
basic education is enshrined in the South African constitution.3 If only others
could follow your lead…
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Despite the agreement by governments, civil society and the international
community on the seriousness of the challenges faced by illiteracy and on the need
to act, the problem is to turn this agreement into practical effect through concrete
commitments reflected in priorities, budgets, plans and implementation at the
national level.
It is for this reason that I want to personally congratulate the winners of the
Outstanding Learning Projects that will be given later in the evening. Only through
your actions can we learn and increase the cadre of examples of best practices to
replicate and implement elsewhere. It is also for this reason that I look forward to
the events being held during the coming days at the Cape Town International
Conference Centre. I sincerely trust that concrete results can be made towards
greater investment in literacy activities for adults and children alike for now and for
the future. We cannot forget the dangers of relapsing into illiteracy. Literacy, and
being literate, are life-long endeavours. I wish to salute the efforts of every one of
you here in this room for your hard work at making life-long literacy a true reality.
Part of the process of “Learning to Live Together” is in sharing one’s experiences
with others. UNESCO is extremely interested in what is happening and what has
happened in South Africa these past ten years. We, and dare I say I, wish to
congratulate you all – normal people, experts, decision-makers and government and
religious leaders alike – for the exciting changes that have happened and are
happening in South Africa. Requisite in the continuing process of learning to live
together is developing partnerships with other regions in South Africa, Southern
Africa and at the continental level and throughout the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Before continuing with my own dinner, I should just like to add one comment:
On the African continent, we have not been able to capture our own form of writing
– the majority of our languages being oral, their written forms have been forced and
are limited by other written languages, like Arabic, or Japanese or English. If I
were to have one wish – and I know this wish goes beyond your own celebrations
of International Adult Learners’ Week – I would wish that we, as government
leaders and literacy activists could look at the revision of an African script.
I am sure that there could be a way to make this happen without reinventing the
proverbial wheel.
Thank you for your attention.
REFERENCES:
1: C. Robinson, A. Sen, D. Archer, M. Fasheh, D. Ghebrezghi, M. Masaquiza I.
Patel, B. Silawal, Literacy as Freedom: A UNESCO Round-table. UNESCO, Paris, 2003.
2: UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/56/116 United Nations Literacy Decade:
education for all, United Nations, New York, 18 January 2002.
3: Cape Town, South Africa International
Adult Learners' Week 2004 pamphlet.
4: Message from the Director-General of UNESCO on
the occasion of International Literacy Day, 8 September, 2003.