International Literacy Day has been celebrated on September 8 since 1966, following a UNESCO initiative launched in 1965. The aim of this initiative is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally. Celebrations take place around the world.

Some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

This year the day is being held under the motto “Literacy is the best medicine.” According to a UNESCO survey, literacy is a key factor in major health-related problems, particularly with women. The survey, done in 32 countries, shows that women with secondary education have an awareness of HIV 5 times greater than illiterate women. Furthermore, infant mortality rate has also been tied to literacy. “Literacy is a powerful means for combating threats to human health”, the UNESCO Director-General Koitiro Matsuura said in his message on International Literacy Day.  

In Russia the illiteracy is not considered a problem: practically all adults can read and write. Russian 10-year-old schoolchildren are recognized as the best among children their age from 45 countries developed countries in both the quality of reading and the level of reading comprehension, says Deputy Director of the Institute for Russian Language Studies Maria Kalenchuk.

According to Vladimir Pakhomov, editor of the Internet portal Gramota.ru (which focuses on grammatical issues), the general level of literacy has declined over the past decade, but not catastrophically. He notes that schoolchildren are most likely to make grammatical mistakes when using the Internet. “But in general users try to write in a grammatically correct manner. Bloggers strive to lay out their ideas using grammatically correct structures and observe the rules of grammar, and they notice and point out the mistakes of others,” Pakhomov notes.

Vladimir Pakhomov also notes that the Internet and mobile communications have introduced a new variation of the Russian language. “Earlier we had conversational Russian and written Russian, where all the grammatical rules were observed. Now we have something new. It is formulated in writing but is identical to conversational speech.”