Department of Education Extranet

UNESCO INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO

ILD2026 provides a platform for Ministers, Senior officials and diverse stakeholders and international organisation to engage in peer learning, open exchanges, address critical questions and share concrete examples of literacy policies and programmes.

MEC Abraham Vosloo represented South Africa and the ILD2026 themed: ‘Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity’. Literacy, is the ability to read, write and use numbers, as well as to do so using digital materials to solve problems in an increasingly technological and information-rich environment, is central for individuals’ engagement in work, learn and life.

In the past decades, steady progress has been made in literacy. In 2024, however, the world was still home to at least 739 million youth and adults who lacked basic literacy skills. South Africa has made substantial progress in expanding access to education since democracy. The Department of Basic Education has consequently placed foundational literacy and numeracy at the centre of the current education reform agenda, with the objective that children should be able to read for meaning and calculate with confidence by approximately age 10.

President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised at the 2026 Basic Education Sector Lekgotla that teacher development is central to the transformation of foundational learning and that the expansion of Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education (MTbBE )requires appropriate teacher training and curriculum and assessment alignment. By the end of 2025, 11,948 schools nationally were implementing MTbBE, including 172 schools in the Northern Cape.

This opportunity at the UNESCO International Literacy Day provides a valuable platform for South Africa to position matters relating to Literacy not merely as conference remarks, but as priorities for the next phase of international cooperation on youth and adult literacy.

"Literacy lights the way — for people, the planet and prosperity."