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2020 laureates of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy are celebrated in China
On 28 September 2020, this year鈥檚 three winners of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, from Ghana, Mexico and Yemen were honoured at a national award ceremony in Jining City in the Shandong Province of China.
The ceremony was sponsored and organized by the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and the Jining People鈥檚 Government, and co-organized by the Jining Education Bureau and the UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education.
, already recognized the three winners at the global webinar on 8 September on (ILD). This year the theme of both ILD and International Literacy Prizes was 鈥楲iteracy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond鈥, with a specific attention given to the role of educators and changing pedagogies.
The 2020 UNESCO Confucius Prizes for Literacy were awarded to:
- in Ghana for its 鈥業nspirational Business Stories鈥 programme;
- in Mexico for its 鈥楲iteracy programme: learning by teaching鈥;
- in Yemen for its 鈥楨ducating and integrating refugees in literacy classes in Yemeni society鈥 programme.
Ms Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education, opened the ceremony with a video message: 鈥淏y empowering youth and children through innovative and sustainable business and entrepreneurship skills, enrolling refugees in literacy classes, and providing activities related to learning and numeracy skills via training programmes to instill a social conscience and contribute to social change, these programmes have made a difference, and have contributed to fulfilling the right to education, of which literacy is a part鈥.
The winning programmes were represented by Mr Janix Asare, President of Just Commit Foundation (Ghana), Ms Mirta Isabel Figuerora Fernandez, Director of the Centro Universitario de Participaci贸n Social (Mexico) and Mr Abdulrahman Mohammed Mashof Al-Aslami, Media and Public Relation Director of the Literacy and Adult Education Office in Sana'a (Yemen).
鈥淥n behalf of the Just commit Foundation, I wanted to say that we are very pleased for this honor and we would like to thank you, the Delegation of People's Republic of China to UNESCO鈥, said Mr Janix Asare from Ghana.
Ms Figuerora Fernandez from Mexico said: 鈥淲e鈥檒l continue our work to make visible what situation millions of people live in this world today. Thank you very much for that recognition, we feel very proud, but also very committed to continue working, to continue learning鈥.
鈥淭he prize is a pride for Yemen in general and for us in particular. We would like to thank the Chinese Government for their recognition and unlimited support for literacy programmes. Actually, this support will motivate us further to do our best in improving literacy education鈥, said Mr Al-Aslami from Yemen.
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The UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy was established in 2005 with the support of the Government of the People鈥檚 Republic of China. It is awarded to excellent literacy programmes with special consideration to adult literacy learning in rural areas and out-of-school youth, particularly girls and women.
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