King Sejong the Great, the fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty, invented the Korean alphabet Hangeul to raise literacy among his people. Shown is his statue at Gwanghwamun Gate in Seoul's Jongno-gu District. Korea.net DB

 

By Kim Eun-young

Three groups from the U.K., India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the winners of this year's UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Sept. 8 named Native Scientist, a non-profit science group based in the U.K., Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences of India and Madrasa, a UAE-based online education platform as this year's winners.

Founded in 2013, Native Scientist offers study programs taught by experts in science, engineering and math for immigrant children and youth in their mother tongues. Helping students raise their scientific literary and language development, the organization has had about 1,800 participants from 2018 through last year.

Founded in 1993, Kalinga is a university that runs multilingual educational programs in the mother tongues of students to alleviate the low education level of indigenous elementary school students in India. Approximately 12,000 took part in the program from 2013-20.

Madrasa is an online Arabic education platform launched in 2018. It uses a game format in which students earn points in a competition with their peers and utilizes story-based video materials to stimulate motivation for studying.

The awards will be given on Sept. 8 Korean Standard Time at a ceremony to mark International Literacy Day in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.

To promote the importance of eliminating illiteracy, UNESCO on Sept. 8, 1965, designed International Literacy Day. To mark this occasion, the annual honor is given to people or groups that contribute to rooting out illiteracy in the world.

The ministry launched the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 1989 and has supported UNESCO's efforts to promote the spirit of King Sejong the Great, the inventor of Hangeul whose dream was to create an equal world through literacy, and join efforts to eliminate illiteracy worldwide.

From 1990 through last year, 59 individuals and groups received the award, which consists of prize money of USD 20,000, a certificate and silver medal.

eykim86@korea.kr