Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 7 / Trend , J.Babayeva /
Approximately 776 million adults - most of them women - have no secure command of the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said.
Ki-moon reported that seventy-five million children are not in school and even for those who get a start on their education, drop-out rates are very high.
"Yet it wouldn't take much to change the appalling status quo. As pointed out by Dr. Lalage Bown, who will give this year's International Literacy Day Lecture, "even the simplest acquisition of literacy can have a profoundly empowering effect personally, socially and politically", the Secretary General stressed.
He said with that in mind, this year's observance focuses on the empowering role of literacy.
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