Rethinking Literacy for Bangladesh

Every year, International Literacy Day invites us to reconsider a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to be literate? Traditionally, literacy has meant reading and writing. But amid climate change, technological disruption, inequality, misinformation and rapidly changing work, that definition is no longer sufficient. The theme of International Literacy Day 2026, “Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity,” offers an opportunity to see literacy not merely as an educational outcome, but as a foundation for human dignity, environmental responsibility and shared prosperity.

For Bangladesh, this is not an abstract debate. The country has made significant progress in expanding access to education and reducing illiteracy. Yet the challenge is changing. The question is no longer whether people can read and write, but whether literacy helps them understand their circumstances, make informed decisions, participate in society, adapt to change and shape better futures.

The theme of International Literacy Day 2026, “Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity,” offers an opportunity to see literacy not merely as an educational outcome, but as a foundation for human dignity, environmental responsibility and shared prosperity.

This also requires recognising Bangladesh’s rich cultural and linguistic resources. Storytelling, folk literature, songs, theatre, poetry and local knowledge can be powerful pedagogical resources rather than obstacles to modern literacy. 

The word planet is particularly significant for Bangladesh, where floods, cyclones, erosion, salinity, heat stress and displacement affect lives and education. Climate literacy helps citizens understand risks, interpret warnings, evaluate evidence and make informed decisions-from farmers and coastal communities to young people navigating climate misinformation and protecting vital ecosystems. Environmental literacy should therefore become part of everyday learning. Children can explore rivers, cyclones, salinity, air pollution, waste and urban heat through their local environments, making literacy relevant to lived experience. Echoing Paulo Freire’s idea that reading the word is connected with reading the world, education should cultivate curiosity, evidence-based reasoning and problem-solving while helping learners interpret a changing world.

The third dimension, prosperity, brings literacy into the changing world of work. Automation, artificial intelligence, digital platforms and new employment models are transforming economic life. Traditional literacy remains indispensable but must be complemented by digital, financial, media, information and technological literacy. Young people entering today's labour market may need to complete digital applications, understand technical instructions, communicate online, interpret financial information, evaluate websites, use productivity software and interact with AI-enabled systems. These capabilities are becoming essential to economic participation.

Yet digital literacy is not simply the ability to operate a smartphone. It requires people to search, evaluate, create and communicate information safely and responsibly, while understanding privacy, online fraud, misinformation and digital financial risks. Artificial intelligence makes this more urgent. Future literacy will require people to use AI critically and ethically, question its outputs when necessary and know when human judgement must prevail.

However, technology alone cannot solve foundational literacy challenges. Digital devices and artificial intelligence cannot compensate for weak comprehension, reasoning, communication or curiosity; they can amplify both good education and educational weakness. Literacy policy must therefore move beyond enrolment, attendance and examination results to ask whether children can read with understanding, express ideas clearly, use numeracy in daily life and apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations. Foundational learning is central to Bangladesh's future human capital, productivity and social development.

Literacy must therefore become everyone’s business. Families, schools, libraries, communities, local government, civil society, media and the private sector all have roles to play. Public institutions should use accessible language, workplaces provide opportunities for continuous learning, and libraries evolve into community spaces offering books, digital access and learning activities. The media also has a vital role in an age of misinformation, helping citizens distinguish evidence from assertion, verified information from fabricated content and journalism from propaganda. 

Bangladesh needs a new social contract around literacy-one that connects people, planet and prosperity. Literacy for people means enabling everyone to participate with dignity and confidence; for the planet, understanding environmental risks and acting responsibly; and for prosperity, developing the foundational, digital, financial and lifelong learning skills needed in a changing economy.

International Literacy Day 2026 should therefore be more than an annual observance. It should prompt Bangladesh to ask whether its education system is preparing people not merely to pass examinations, but to understand the world, navigate uncertainty, participate meaningfully and shape the future. Literacy in the twenty-first century is not simply the ability to read a sentence, but to read, question, participate in and help change the world. That is what literacy for people, the planet and prosperity should mean for Bangladesh.