Participants explored new ways of coordinating literacy efforts to support economic development. The three-day meeting included 225 presentations on topics such as professional development, planning and policy development, curriculum development, intergenerational programs, research and development networks, and distance education. At a time when information technology is expanding rapidly, carrying promises of economic prosperity for even the poorest nations, the gap between those who can use the new technology and those who cannot because of poor literacy skills continues to widen at alarming rates, said Wadi Haddad, deputy secretary of the World Bank, during his remarks opening the sessions. Haddad and other world experts on literacy predicted dire consequences if the world fails to address adequately the problems of illiteracy in both developing and industrialized nations. Mayor drew his remarks from his own experiences growing up as a member of a linguistic minority in Spain.
Literacy is a political question.
The conference was the first major international meeting dealing with literacy to be held since the International Symposium for Literacy took place in Iran 20 years ago. The 1996 conference drew participants from countries as diverse as Angola, Nepal, Slovenia, Mauritius, Brazil and Switzerland. The broadcast was downlinked to nearly 400 sites worldwide with an estimated viewership of 30,000 to 40,000 people. This conference links on a global scale the best research and policy efforts to address the critical need for improving the standards in the U.S. and around the world. Wagner told the audience that literacy work worldwide needed to shift emphasis.