Literacy is one of those abilities we often take for granted. We learn to read and write as children, and from then on these skills accompany us almost invisibly throughout our lives. Yet literacy is much more than recognising words on a page.
It determines how we understand information, how independently we make decisions and, increasingly, how well we can navigate a world in which information reaches us faster than ever before.
And despite enormous progress, the challenge remains considerable. According to UNESCO, at least 739 million young people and adults worldwide still lacked basic literacy skills in 2024.
At the same time, four in ten children do not reach minimum proficiency in reading, while 272 million children and adolescents were out of school in 2023.
These numbers remind us that the ability to read and write is still far from universal. But they also invite us to ask a broader question: What does it actually mean to be literate in 2026?
Today, literacy must increasingly include the ability not simply to consume information, but to understand, question and evaluate it.
We live in an age of extraordinary access to knowledge. A smartphone gives us access within seconds to information that previous generations might have spent hours or days searching for. But access to information and understanding information are two very different things.
Social media, artificial intelligence and digital platforms have fundamentally changed how we encounter news, opinions and knowledge. Information is shorter, faster and often presented without context.
Facts compete with opinions, reliable sources with misinformation, and complex issues with messages designed to capture our attention in only a few seconds.
This does not necessarily mean that people are simply becoming “less literate.” The reality is more complex. In Germany, for example, the OECD Survey of Adult Skills shows that average adult literacy performance remained broadly stable between 2011–12 and 2022–23. Yet the gap between the strongest and weakest performers widened.
Today, around 22% of adults aged 16 to 65 in Germany have low literacy proficiency, while 14% perform at the two highest levels.
This is why our understanding of literacy needs to evolve. In other words, literacy today also means learning how to think critically.
These abilities are essential not only for education or professional success. They are fundamental to democracy. A society in which people can read but struggle to evaluate what they are reading becomes more vulnerable to manipulation, polarisation and misinformation.
The ability to form an independent judgement therefore belongs among the most important skills we can pass on to the next generation.
Sport can contribute to this development as well. Sport teaches us that progress requires learning, reflection and sometimes correction. Athletes constantly receive information: from coaches, competitors, their own bodies and their performances.
They must learn to evaluate it, distinguish useful criticism from distraction and make decisions under pressure. Good coaching does not simply tell young people what to do. It gradually teaches them to understand why they are doing it and to take responsibility for their own development.
“For me, this is an important part of education. We should not only teach young people to absorb knowledge. We should give them the confidence and skills to question, understand and use it responsibly,” says Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff.
International Literacy Day therefore reaches far beyond books and classrooms.
Literacy begins with reading and writing, but it continues with understanding, judgement, curiosity and the willingness to keep learning throughout our lives.
Because in a world where almost everyone can publish information, the ability to receive information critically becomes more valuable than ever.
Yours
sincerely
