On the occasion of Literacy Day on September 8, 2020, a representative of the NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro participated in the show “Mosaic” on Radio of Montenegro (RTCG).
The guests of the show were: Ilija Boljevic, coordinator of activities in the NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro; Ivana Cekovic, education program coordinator at the UNICEF office in Montenegro; Milica Kovacevic, PR manager of the Red cross of Montenegro; Ljiljana Garic, head of the Department for adult education; Ljiljana Ivanovic, independent advisor for primary and preschool education at the Institute for vocational education. The guests of the show had the opportunity to talk about topics such as the development of literacy in Montenegro, actions on the occasion of Literacy Day, the impact of the Internet on children and adults, as well as the need to improve security and protect online privacy. The representative of the Institute for education emphasized that the current situation with the Covid-19 pandemic has posed a great challenge to education, but thanks to the development of the Internet and the digitalization of society, it is much easier to overcome these difficulties. The UNICEF representative pointed out that according to the test results, children from Montenegro are one and a half academic years late compared to their peers from OECD average countries. The Red Cross said that the current situation had extremely affected the entire society, and that was especially felt in the humanitarian and social field.
The representative of the NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro pointed out some of the actions by which our volunteers would mark Literacy Day.
“A literacy quiz was organized in Niksic with the support of our volunteers who asked citizens on Niksic Square how well they know the basics of literacy, as well as actions in Berane and Podgorica and online campaigns. Today’s modern age has changed the understanding of literacy, today’s literacy does not only mean the knowledge of reading and writing. Today, we have to talk about functional literacy and that the knowledge they learn they must know how to apply in life”, Boljevic pointed out.
September 8, International Literacy Day, at the initiative of UNESCO, was established in September 1965 in Tehran, at the World conference of Ministers of education, to remind the international community once a year of the importance and status of literacy in the world and it started being marked two years later. In Montenegro, Literacy Day was first marked in 2012, at the initiative of the Institute for education, the expert team of the project “How to help students successfully create oral and written, artistic and non-artistic texts”, as well as teachers from 13 elementary schools involved in the project.