Every September 8th since 1967, International Literacy Day brings global attention to literacy’s vital role in creating fairer, more peaceful, and sustainable communities. This annual observance reminds leaders, educators, and citizens around the world that reading and writing skills are essential for a better society. And literacy represents more than just the ability to read and write\u2014it’s a basic human right that unlocks access to many freedoms and opportunities.<\/p>\n
Despite decades of progress on literacy, challenges persist. As of 2023, roughly 754 million adults and young people lack basic literacy skills, and around 250 million school-age children remain out of school entirely, making International Literacy Day’s mission urgent.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the International Literacy Day (ILD) theme is \u201cPromoting Literacy in the Digital Era\u201d. Read more about literacy successes and continued work, and find out about ILD events across the world on the UNESCO International Literacy Day website<\/a>.<\/p>\n United States<\/strong> Oregon<\/strong> \t\t\t\tFounded by UNESCO, International Literacy Day on September 8, 2024, draws attention to the importance of having a literate public. \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41517,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions\/41517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcc.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMore than 43 million Americans struggle to read, write, do math and use technology above the 3rd-grade level. UNESCO recently released a report that estimates that as a result of COVID-19, there are now 290 million students (children and youth) out of school. See International Adult Literacy Facts<\/a> from Pro Literacy.<\/p>\n
\nIn Oregon, 16.8% of adults have low literacy<\/a>, which impacts employment, income, and access to healthcare, among other things. And nearly half of Oregon fourth graders are scoring \u201cbelow basic\u201d on reading, according to national tests<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"