As an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalised adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty, and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities.
It is intolerable that around 1 in 5 of the world's adults are illiterate. How can we build equitable information societies or thriving democracies if so many remain without the basic tools of literacy?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of literacy for building fair societies and functioning democracies.
Koichiro Matsuura highlights a significant global issue: a large portion of the adult population is illiterate, which poses a serious barrier to creating equitable information societies and thriving democracies. Literacy is foundational for participation in society, and the quote calls attention to the urgent need for educational initiatives to address this challenge, ensuring that everyone has access to the essential skills required to engage meaningfully in their communities and the political process.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for educational reforms, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for increased literacy programs.
More from Koichiro Matsuura
All quotes →Similar quotes
Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.
Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.
So many organizations have a mentoring arm, but they don't really do it. Their idea of mentoring a kid is giving them general advice. But what they need to do is read with children.
I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life purpose, they'll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered while at school. If they don't figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life.
I always set out to tell a good story, to create a character that young people can relate to, place them in a situation that will be interesting, intriguing, eventually suspenseful. But what I find is that after I do that, then there are themes that emerge, which teachers can then use to provoke discussion and debate.
By all means read the Puritans, they are worth more than all the modern stuff put together.