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2023 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize winners commemorate Hangul Day Celebrations in the Republic of Korea
Post date:
2023/10/24
Venue:
Seoul, South Korea
23/10/23
From 7 to 10 October 2023, the three laureates of UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize from Finland, Pakistan and South Africa were invited by the government of the Republic of Korea to visit Seoul and Sejong City, and take part in the 577th Hangul Day Celebrations, which commemorates the creation of the Korean alphabet by King Sejong in 1446.
Prior to 1446, the Korean language was primarily written using Chinese characters. This practice presented significant challenges due to the substantial grammatical distinctions between Korean and Chinese, making literacy an exclusive domain of the elite class. The introduction of Hangeul, named after King Sejong the Great, played a pivotal role in promoting literacy among Koreans, transcending social status barriers. Organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Republic of Korea and the Federation of Korean Language and Cultural Center, the three winners, accompanied by several ‘2023 Hangul Development Merit Award’ laureates, took part in multiple cultural visits and activities that highlighted the influence of the Hangul alphabet on the rich and diverse culture in the Korean society.
Mr Jesper Ryynänen, Co-founder of GraphoGame, in Finland, represented the winning GraphoGame programme, recognized for its research-based literacy games in 14 languages which aims to continuously develop new language versions to teach children and adults literacy skills in their mother-tongue. The Himalayan Literacy Network programme from Pakistan, recognized for its efforts to catalyze a literacy movement within Pakistan’s Bakarwal community, through mother tongue-based multilingual education, was represented by Mr Muhammad Anwar Zeb, Chairman, Gojri Language and Culture Society, and Mr Mian Nizam Din, Founder and Senior Field Supervisor. Finally, Mr Stephen Bestbier, Government Partnerships Manager at Snapplify in South Africa, represented the ‘Africa e-Library project’ programme from South Africa recognized for its dedication to actively promote mother-tongue literacy across the continent.
On 8 September 2023 UNESCO celebrated International Literacy Day with an international conference centered around the theme ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies’ and this year’s UNESCO Literacy Prizes award ceremony. On behalf of UNESCO Director-General, Ms Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education rewarded six innovative and impactful literacy programmes from Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Finland, Pakistan, South Africa and Uganda with the two UNESCO International Literacy Prizes: the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prizes and the UNESCO Confucius Prizes for Literacy.
The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize was established in 1989 with the support of the Government of the Republic of Korea. It is awarded to excellent literacy programmes with special consideration to mother language-based literacy development.