News Release No. On the threshold of the new Millennium, almost 1 billion adults worldwide, two-thirds of them women, are illiterate. Of the estimated 125 million young children not attending primary school in developing countries, two-thirds are girls. To highlight the scale of this problem on International Literacy Day, the World Bank and its partners are warning that despite tremendous gains in literacy in recent years, much more remains to be done to ensure that all people around the world have access to quality education.
Literacy is pivotal to human progress.
All agree that the single most important key to development and to poverty alleviation is education. Doryan will launch the Bank's Education Sector Strategy while Santa will announce the winner of the 1999 Literacy Awards and speak on issues of early literacy. The government has agreements with 30 NGOs to provide instruction and literacy training in civics, family planning health, environment and work- related skills to attract older learners. These programs cover more than 49,000 learners. For example, the growth in girls' secondary school enrollment in the project has increased each year and for every class the program has covered.