Ecuador to receive UNESCO's literacy prize

Ecuador will receive the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for its three-year education project in a ceremony in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on International Literacy Day which falls on Sept. 8, local media reported Tuesday.

The South American country was awarded for launching "Basic Education for Youth and Adults Project", which has benefited 325, 000 people since 2011, said the United Nations for Education Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) on its website on Monday.

The program does not only teach reading and writing, but includes teaching on citizenship, health and nutrition, the UN agency said. Meanwhile, the teaching of indigenous populations is conducted in their own mother tongue in an approach sensitive to their worldview, it added.

In total UNESCO awards five literacy prizes every year: three UNESCO Confucius Prizes for Literacy, created in 2005 with the support of the Government of the People's Republic of China; and two UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prizes, created in 1989 with the support of the Government of the Republic of Korea.

Ecuador's Ministry of Education and Burkina Faso's Association for Promoting Non-Formal Education are the two laureates of the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prizes in 2014. Algeria, South Africa and Spain were awarded the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.

Each of the five winners will receive 20,000 U.S. dollars in prize money, a diploma and a medal at the Sept. 8 ceremony.

Each year, UNESCO promotes the International Literacy Prizes to governments, institutions and individuals who have developed educational alternatives that promote sustainable development and social cohesion.