International Literacy Day: your role as a TEFL Teacher

On the 8th of September, the world celebrates International Literacy Day. Even in 2025, illiteracy remains a significant barrier across large parts of the world, from even the most “developed” nations to the most isolated outposts the world has to offer.

Celebrated since 1967, UNESCO’s International Literacy Day is a celebration of all things reading and writing. It’s a time to shine a light on all of our favourite books, poems and folk tales, put an onus on the joy of literature, and to also raise awareness of the lack of educational opportunities that stunt development around the world.

For TEFL teachers, the applications are obvious. As an educator, you have a license to dress up as your favourite fictional character and have your students do the same. If you teach at a school, your pupils can read excerpts from their favourite stories, write some prose themselves, or you can even write a poem as a class, with every student writing a line each. If you have adult students, it’s a great opportunity to show them the beauty of the language, as opposed to just its functionality. Reading some famous literature will definitely help!

This year, International Literacy Day is being celebrated in Cameroon, and there’s a special reason why TEFL teachers ought to get involved.

International Literacy Day

To quote UNESCO : 

“Since 1967, the annual celebrations of International Literacy Day (ILD) have taken place on 8 September around the world to remind policy-makers, practitioners, and the public of the critical importance of literacy for creating more literate, just, peaceful, and sustainable society.” 

Education, after all, is the most important tool for personal independence and societal progress. In particular, illiteracy disproportionately affects women and children, limiting economic and educational opportunities. To further quote UNESCO:

“765 million adults still cannot read and write, two-thirds of them women, and 250 million children are failing to acquire basic literacy skills”

The importance of literacy should be obvious. It should be everyone’s goal to achieve universal literacy, with everyone allowed to pursue their own educational goals, find meaningful work, and achieve independence. At The TEFL Org, we’re dedicated to helping spread literacy around the planet. In recent years, we’ve partnered with Theirworld , a charity that helps fund early educational opportunities globally.

Talking of TEFL, the theme of International Literacy Day is multilingual learning! If you’re a TEFL teacher, or you’re training to be the next English teaching superstar, there’s never been a better time to get involved.

Celebrating International Literacy Day in the classroom

How can you celebrate International Literacy Day in the classroom?

It can be so simple. English teachers can ask students to bring their favourite books into class, or even dress up as their favourite characters. Students can give presentations - in English! - talking about how wonderful these stories are. Or, on a micro level, pupils can get into groups and discuss books with their fellow students.

There’s also scope for a load of arts and crafts activities. Pupils can design alternate covers for their favourite books, “storyboard” scenes or create posters, for example. The internet is full of fantastic lesson plans for International Literacy Day for a range of age groups, or you can use your imagination!

For older students, or individual students who you tutor on a one-to-one basis, there are also plenty of opportunities to celebrate International Literacy Day. If you want to encourage literary analysis, you can set a close reading exercise, or have a more casual discussion (again, in English!) about a text from your pupil’s chosen book. If the student is more advanced, you can ask them to write some prose or poetry, and creatively engage with language.

What you can do as a TEFL teacher to boost literacy rates

As a TEFL teacher, you could play a fundamental role in developing someone’s literacy skills. If you teach especially young children, at the kindergarten level, you’ll likely be involved in their first reading exercises, helping them to learn basic linguistic sounds, patterns and rhythms. This early education makes all the difference. It’s not just kids, though: all too often, poor standards of education or lack of resources allow people to enter adulthood without being able to read or write. 

From there, a TEFL teacher might be asked to teach the English alphabet - no small task! - before moving on to basic grammar and punctuation (“I put a full stop here”, “I put a question mark here”). At that point, it’s all about providing texts which your learners engage with, telling compelling stories full of important reading comprehension lessons. Fostering a passion for reading and writing is crucial - the benefits are clear.

There are opportunities everywhere. You might find that in areas where illiteracy is most prevalent, there are a host of volunteering opportunities . This is where you can truly make a lasting impact. 
Where are these areas? Typically, literacy rates are lower in developing countries, especially inland, in rural areas. Countries that are less popular as TEFL destinations typically have lower literacy rates, and literacy rates tend to match poverty rates relatively closely. There are resources for finding out global literacy rates online, and you can consult our country guides for information about English proficiency and literacy.

How you can make a difference

If we hadn’t made it clear already, TEFL teachers can make a massive difference through teaching people to read and write, and promoting literacy more broadly. How? Simply because literacy = opportunity. Let’s break it down a little.

Education

It sounds obvious, but literacy is the difference between engagement and attendance at school, and dropping out entirely. In areas where school isn’t compulsory - or can be easily avoided - literacy rates are typically much lower. If a child cannot read or write, they might have little motivation to attend school, let alone the confidence to participate. Not only can this have an awful effect on a child’s ability to socialise , but it can hamstring their chances of getting the education they need, and going on to improve their economic circumstances.

You can be the difference between someone getting the education they need, and not. That’s powerful.

Jobs

Beyond the classroom, you can help people achieve financial independence. Again, it sounds remarkably simple, but the more proficient someone is at reading and writing, the more likely they are to prosper in the job market. This is especially true in areas with lower rates of literacy, but it’s also a general truth: literacy makes it easier to find fulfilling, rewarding work.

As a teacher, you can help people out of poverty. You can help people find work that means something significant to them, that helps the people around them and uplifts a community at large. Again: it’s powerful stuff. 

Curiosity and enjoyment

Beyond the important applications of literacy in terms of education and employment, there’s a lot to be said for the celebration of literature and literacy. By giving the gift of literacy as a teacher, you can spark a lifelong passion for learning, whether it’s for florid literature, engineering, art - whatever a person ends up caring about, it’ll involve literacy!

In some parts of the world, it’s easy to take for granted that we’ll be taught to read and write. We have access to everything from traffic signals to ‘War and Peace’. It’s expected. Not everyone has that, and until everyone does, it should be our collective goal to give everyone the same opportunities to enjoy life to the fullest. Literacy isn’t a privilege, it’s a right.

Celebrate International Literacy Day your way!

However you celebrate International Literacy Day, make sure you spread the word. UNESCO even has this amazing poster that you can print for your classroom or home office! Whether you teach online, in a classroom, to kids or adults, we want to hear about how you’re celebrating International Literacy Day and what it means to you. Get in touch on Instagram , Facebook , LinkedIn or by email and we may even feature you in an upcoming blog post!

Feeling inspired? Want to make a difference across the world by teaching English as a foreign language? Start a course today!