The UNESCO Regional Conference Supporting Global Literacy opened today in Beijing. The two-day meeting will address literacy challenges in East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific. Contributors from these regions will share their success stories.

The "Building partnerships and promoting innovative approaches" conference brings together first ladies, policymakers, education ministers, and educational experts, as well as representatives from bilateral and multilateral organizations.

Family literacy and cross-generational learning, literacy for health and literacy for economic self-sufficiency are some of the topics stressed at these talks. Additionally, specific regional issues, such as literacy in a multilingual context and literacy and rural development will also be discussed.

The Asia-Pacific region faces very diverse challenges. In general terms, the literacy rate is high (91.7%), but a wide range within and between countries exists. Significantly, a serious gender gap persists, with 70.4% of the illiterate population being women. While clear progress has been made in past years, the total number of Asia-Pacific illiterates is still considerable.

"Enforcing the 9-year compulsory education system, especially in rural areas, is always a priority in China's development plan," said State Councilor Chen Zhili at the opening ceremony. She reviewed  government's achievements over recent decades. Chen noted that China had reached its strategic goal of "eliminating basic illiteracy among young and middle-aged people" as scheduled in 2000, with adult illiteracy currently limited to 9.08% and youth and middle-aged illiteracy under 4%.

Chen also promised that China would continue to cooperate with UNESCO and play an active role in the literacy movement within East Asia. China's general literacy goals by 2010 focus on reducing the total number of adult illiterates.

The UNESCO regional conferences are part of a series of meetings to support global literacy. All of them aspire to build bridges between governments and other relevant organizations. They hope to promote a literacy environment and to put forward concrete suggestions for nation-level literacy promoting activities.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Huang Shan July 31, 2007)