International Literacy Day was celebrated at Tundikhel in an event
organised by the Education Resource Centre and attended by the Minister
of Education. There was a singing competition on the theme of literacy.

In
1954, when UMN started, the literacy rate in Nepal was just 5%. Now
it’s 67% – a tremendous increase. UMN’s Technical Director, Jerry
Clewett, recalled some of UMN’s past contributions to education in
Nepal, including the first school for girls, Mahendra Bhawan (1957), the
Gorkha education project that supported village schools (1957), and
Gandaki Boarding School (1966). Today, UMN works with 120 community
schools in 10 districts, in programmes like Child-friendly Education,
Early Childhood Development and Multi-Lingual Education. Many of our
partners also run non-formal adult literacy classes where people,
particularly women, who missed out on the opportunity to go to school
can learn basic skills.

The theme of International Literacy Day
this year was “Literacy and Sustainable Development”. Literacy is
indeed foundational for development – it provides the key for the
empowerment of women and men, girls and boys.

“Literacy is everyone’s right,” said Jerry, “so let’s work together to make 100% literacy in Nepal a reality!”