International Literacy Day 2024 - Enhancing literacy through multilingualism: Promoting peace across the Blue Pacific Continent

Despite steady progress made across the world, literacy challenges persist with at least 763 million young people and adults lacking basic literacy skills in 2020. The recent COVID-19 crises and other crisis, such as climate change and conflicts, have been exacerbating the challenges (UNESCO, 2024).

International Literacy Day Celebration

This year, International Literacy Day (ILD) will be celebrated under the global theme of “Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace”. In today’s world, in which multilingualism is a common practice for many, empowering people by adopting a first language-based, multilingual approach to literacy development and education is particularly effective for its cognitive, pedagogical, and socio-economic benefits. Such an approach can help promote mutual understanding and respect, while solidifying communal identities and collective histories (UNESCO, 2024).

The Pacific is no stranger to multilingual learning with approximately 1,500 spoken languages used across the Blue Pacific Continent. The Pacific Community (SPC), governed by 27 member countries and territories, has been entrusted to strengthen regionalism and promote peace and mutual understanding amongst its members. SPC’s Educational Quality and Assessment Programme is specifically mandated to strengthen literacy at all levels of education and promote multilingual learning across the region.

Literacy Day Celebration in the Pacific

Reflecting back over the past few months, SPC has worked on a number of initiatives to help strengthen the Pacific’s literacy standards. As part of the 2023 ILD celebrations, the team launched a poetry competition during which Pacific poets were invited to share their views on the global theme of the international day: “Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies”.

Literacy Day Celebration 2023

A total of 66 poems were received from all over the region and three poets were crowned winners. The top 20 poems from the competition have now been compiled into a literacy tool and can now be used by Pacific teachers to close the literacy gaps identified in Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA). The booklet titled: Voices of Pacific Youth: A Literacy Learning Tool, contains poems, illustrations, learning tips and questions linked to the poems to help teachers to teach the different elements of reading skills to their children. This intervention tool will be launched during this year’s ILD celebrations.

Literacy Day Celebration 2024

This year’s literacy day event will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the region’s own Year 13 assessment programme: the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate (SPFSC). This regional programme, which has been offered in English and French in the recent past, is an outcomes-based qualification provided by SPC. For successful students, the qualification paves the way to enter into tertiary education or employment in the job market.

Lastly, to help strengthen education research structures for storing and accessing research across the region, SPC will launch the Pacific’s own education Research Bank that will house research on education-related issues from across the Pacific. The new research bank will allow Pacific Island countries as well as existing and emerging development partners to be aware of the research already existing in the region. Through this bank, the Pacific has the opportunity to contribute information on multilingualism and its impact on literacy that could inform future education policies of the region.

Reflecting on the elements above, SPC’s Educational Quality and Assessment Programme has localised the theme for this year’s literacy day to “Enhancing literacy through multilingualism: Promoting peace across the Blue Pacific Continent”. The SPC family will be using this Pacific-specific theme to celebrate the literacy achievements of the region with all its stakeholders. This celebratory event is opportune to map future pathways to improve literacy of the Pacific people as we prepare for the upcoming PILNA scheduled for 2025.