Hon. Andrew A. Fahie
                                                          Minister of Education and Culture
                                       
                                              Message for International Literacy Day 2008

~~Adz:Left~~ Roadtown, Tortola - Good day to all of the people of these beautiful Virgin Islands.Today, we join hands around the world in celebration of International Literacy Day.  “Literacy is the best remedy”, is this year’s theme for International Literacy Day, which is celebrated annually on September 8th, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization known as UNESCO.

 The Director General for UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura in his message states that: ”Literacy is a powerful yet too often overlooked remedy to health threats, with the potential to promote better nutrition, disease prevention and treatment.”  The Ministry of Education and Culture and the BVI National Commission for UNESCO would like all persons in the Territory to celebrate this day and do whatever they can to help to contribute to increased literacy and health in the Virgin Islands.  

Later on this month, the Ministry of Education and Culture in collaboration with the BVI National Commission for UNESCO hopes to launch the Literacy Intervention Programme which will be funded by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education and Culture.  Our hope is to increase and improve the reading levels of all of our children in all our public schools, initializing in the Public Primary Schools.  This programme will be run as part of the regular school day and will be facilitated by local persons who are highly trained and hold a wealth of experience in the area of Reading.

This year’s theme, “Literacy is the best remedy”, makes a strong connection between literacy and health.  It has been demonstrated by extensive research conducted that there is a strong correlation between the level of literacy attained and the individual’s ability to have and maintain good health.  Examples cited include the case where research in thirty two (32) countries indicate that women who achieve secondary education are five (5) times more likely to be informed about HIV/AIDS than their counterparts who are illiterate.

According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), the rate of illiteracy has dropped considerably from 871 million to 776 million persons.  This is remarkable! However, there is serious concern with regards to the attainment of one of the six Dakar goals set in 2000 at the World Education Forum in terms of adult education.  This states that out of some 774 million people, about one in five adults in the world cannot read and write and 75 million children are excluded from school.  This makes it very difficult to achieve the Education for All (EFA) goal of the projected target of increasing adult literacy by 50% by 2015.

UNESCO celebrates International Literacy Day 2008 with several events and also encourages countries all over the world to observe and celebrate this occasion.  Some activities include:

• The awarding of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes.  This will recognize literacy projects that are in existence in Brazil, Ethiopia, South Africa and Zambia.  All of these projects were chosen because of how they impact health.

• A roundtable on literacy and health to be held today, on September 8th, 2008 at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris, France.

As Minister responsible for Education and UNESCO affairs, I would like to encourage all residents and visitors to let us all join in solidarity with UNESCO and celebrate International Literacy Day 2008. Your contribution can range from simply reading the label on a product to reading a story at your child’s school, reading in class at the community college or taking part in a discussion about literacy and health.  Do celebrate the day today and always!   Remember that literacy and health go hand in hand and are very crucial for the future of our Territory as well as the outside world.

I thank you for listening and do enjoy the rest of the day!