International Literacy Day is celebrated throughout the world on 8 September, reports
RIA Novosti. The day was established by UNESCO half a century ago. The inspiration behind creating the day was to encourage the spread of literacy throughout the world, an aim that the international organisation identified as one of their key tasks.
Experts note that literacy is essential if people are to communicate effectively. Yet some experts argue that the internet is negatively affecting literacy in Russia. Olga Ivanova, a senior research fellow at the department of Russian linguistic culture at the Vinogradova Institute for the Study of Russian Language attached to the Russian Academy of Sciences, expressed her concern that the younger generation are failing to develop basic writing skills as a result of the internet. She conceded that older generations suffer from a different kind of literacy, computer illiteracy, but argued this does not present problems with them. She claims that Russians are simply fed up with the illiterate mangling of words that internet communication has produced and that was fashionable just a couple of years ago. A backlash is now underway, with international projects like "Total Dictation" promoting correct spelling and use of language throughout the world.
Former Civic Chamber of Russia member and Russian-language teacher Sergey Volkov blames not only the internet for the decline in literacy among schoolchildren, but also for changes to the schooling system which placed too much emphasis on preparing for tests and not enough attention on writing in essay-format.
According to UN figures, more than four billion people on earth are now fully literate, but universal literacy remains a distant aim. UNESCO notes that this causes numerous problems for poor people throughout the world, but that the underlying problem is very difficult to address. Even in the 21st century more than 800,000 adults still cannot read and write, and more than 100,000 children still do not go to school.
