International Literacy Day 2011

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”- W. B.Yeats

IEducational institutions and literacy missions around the world commemorate International Literacy Day on the 8th of September every year. Endorsed by UNESCO, this day is proclaimed for disseminating literacy awareness amongst world's illiterate community. Since its very inception, this day became a special occasion to mark literacy awareness and many educational programs featured this particular day in their year round events.

GIDF has always laid special emphasis on the importance of education; therefore celebrating this day with the little children who come to our pre school was quite necessary. The day was celebrated on the 8th & 9th of September this year & the children in all our learning centers from the Early Childhood Development Programme approached this day in their own special way.

To begin with, in Mumbai, educators in Kolkata and Delhi had invited the grandparents & parents of all the children. The parents were then asked to participate in a discussion on the importance of education for an individual, community & society as a whole.

Whereas the children in Pune & Hyderabad decided to participate in a rally within the community, where they shouted out slogans like – “Education is our right” & “Each one Teach one”. Their class teachers spoke to them about the importance of the day & then also guided them in the rally.

In Ahmedabad, we had invited Mr P.B.Bhatt (a retired LIC official & guest lecturer) along with Mr.Rajnikant (a businessman & dedicated social worker) over to our learning center, where they were asked to address the students on the importance of education and the advantage of being a literate, responsible citizen. By the end of the day they are also given little gifts from our side. Lastly, the children in Bengaluroo were asked to participate in various educational activities in the class.