World Illiteracy Drops for 1st Time, UNESCO Reports

Illiteracy in the world is decreasing for the first time in recent history, UNESCO said Wednesday in its first World Education Report.

But the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization tempered its optimism by saying that the number of illiterate people is still growing in Africa and that many in industrialized countries cannot read and write adequately for their jobs.

The report said increased access to schooling in developing countries, particularly in Asia and Latin America, has halted the growth in the number of illiterate adults, which peaked at around 950 million just before 1990 and is now falling.

“For the first time in history, the number of illiterate people is going down,” UNESCO Director General Federico Mayor told a press lunch. “Today we can say that each time the sun goes down, there are fewer illiterate people in the world than the previous day.”