7th December 2020
International Literacy Day 2020 – let's work together to help to break the cycle.
8 September 2020
For over 50 years, International Literacy Day has been celebrated around the world to highlight the importance of literacy as a basic human right. However, despite progress made, there are still at least 750 million adults worldwide who do not have basic literacy skills.
The global literacy problems stem from many barriers including race, gender, class, poverty, digital access and geography. Now COVID-19 has made access to education even harder and we risk losing the progress that has been made. 45% of academics who responded to our Inclusivity survey believe a lack of education or poor education is a major barrier to a more inclusive society and UNESCO predicts that less than 70% of adults globally will have basic literacy skills by 2030, which will contribute to a cycle of poverty that is hard to break and social mobility issues.
Join us as we start to look at ways in which we can play a part in helping to break the cycle.
We believe in quality education for everyone, everywhere and by highlighting the issue and speaking to experts in the field, we can start to find ways we can all be part of the solution.
If you are working on related research that can help tackle global literacy issues, or would like to contribute to our featured content, please get in touch.
View our latest content in the area of education and learning.
How is it that with free education for everyone, an overwhelming body of evidence that says learning to read is good for you, and the richest and most diverse publishing industry in the world, over 7 million adults in England have very poor literacy skills?
Emerald has joined the Research4Life partnership which gives the publisher the opportunity to aid the non-profit initiative in its mission to make research available across many of the world’s developing countries.
To see more about how we are delving into some of the key issues around global inclusivity and diversity you can visit our power of diverse voices microsite and read our 2020 Global Inclusivity Report.
Here we look into a number of barriers which prevent an inclusive society. Poverty, the barriers faced by people in a world of those who have and those who have not, class, gender, sexual orientation and racial discrimination we’re some of the themes highlighted. We also take a look at uncovering some of the barriers to inclusivity within academia and how research can play a part in the journey towards a more equal and inclusive world.
In support of our report, we’re working hard to align our content to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and asking the question ‘How do we achieve an inclusive society by 2030’.
We’re also working in partnership with Research 4 Life, providing free access to research content for those in developing countries, giving more underrepresented people access to information that can help to drive change in some of the world’s poorest countries.
We specialise in social science research that furthers the UN SDGs, and aims to have real impact.
We’re working in partnership with Research 4 Life, providing free access to research content for those in developing countries.
We also work with the SSP towards collaborative and representative publishing content across diverse communities.