International Literacy Day: Capacity building for Community Learning Centres
“Progress in literacy across the world continues to be hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. In that respect, we have seen educational disparities being further aggravated by the digital divide,” said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.
The 2021 International Literacy Day (ILD) explored how literacy can contribute to building a solid foundation for a human-centered recovery, with a special focus on the interplay of literacy and digital skills required by non-literate youth and adults. It also explored what makes technology-enabled literacy learning inclusive and meaningful, to leave no one behind. By doing so, ILD 2021 has been an opportunity to reimagine future literacy teaching and learning, within and beyond the context of the pandemic.
In Nepal, UNESCO collaborated with the Centre for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD) and Shikharapur CLC to organize a series of two-day capacity building workshops for Community Learning Centres (CLC) between 9–26 August. In all, 636 participants from 247 CLCs and local government representatives from all seven provinces took part in these workshops, which were followed by an elocution contest for CLC facilitators.
The celebration concluded with a national workshop on 6 September, attended virtually by 193 participants from CLCs across the country.
Ram Prasad Thapaliya, Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, stated, “There have been many policies made to strengthen the CLCs and we will make sure that in time even those with the least resources become model CLCs.”
During the workshops, CLCs shared good practices, learning from each other ways to work with local government, mobilizing limited available resources for more impactful activities, as well as talking about digitalization and how to better promote their work on social media. UNESCO created a social media group that has been very active; currently, 914 CLC members have been involved, using it to share their activities and learn from each other. This was made possible by trainings which were conducted by UNESCO during earlier capacity development programs.
The winners of the elocution contest were officially announced by CEHRD on 6 September, and Dakshinkali Municipality will be providing prizes to the winners.
This event was supported by UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education (CapED) Literacy Programme, which is funded by Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Dubai Cares.