International Literacy Day 2025: Date, theme, history, significance, and more details

To highlight the significance of literacy in establishing a more literate, just, peaceful, and sustainable society, since 1967, UNESCO, on 26 October 1966 at the 14th session of UNESCO’s General Conference, declared International Literacy Day.

Celebrated for the first time in 1967, International Literacy Day (ILD) has been marked on September 8 every year, with this year falling on Monday, September 8, 2025. under the theme, “Promoting literacy in the digital era,” thereby reflecting how digitalisation has impacted our learning, living, working, and social lives.

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Although digital tools have the potential to enhance learning opportunities for marginalised groups, such as the 739 million young individuals and adults lacking basic literacy skills, there is a risk that this digital transition may lead to double marginalisation.

This means that these individuals could be excluded not only from conventional literacy education but also from the advantages offered by the digital era.

Consequently, International Literacy Day 2025 will commemorate literacy advances at global, regional, national, and local levels, with policymakers, practitioners, and the public globally being aware of the importance of literacy for creating a more literate, just, peaceful, and sustainable society.

This observance will serve as a platform for reflection on the contemporary understanding of literacy and will highlight effective policies and initiatives that promote literacy as a common good and a human right, as well as a tool for empowerment and transformation to create more inclusive, just, and sustainable communities.

In the digital era, literacy is more than just reading & writing on paper.

It’s about accessing, understanding & using information meaningfully.

Teachers make that possible — for every learner, everywhere: https://t.co/b55AjODwCl #TeachersCannotBeCoded pic.twitter.com/Gmo0saUlyC

— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) September 7, 2025

International Literacy Day 2025; As we mark the day, it’s been rising keyword trend on Google Search Trends. (Screenshot)