Chief Guests Speech

1. Chef guest speech (mother language day)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am indeed happy to be present with you today in celebrating International Literacy Day.
It’s my great pleasure and privilege for being here as chief guest. It is wonderful to know
that this day is being celebrated at events throughout our country. It is an occasion to
remind ourselves of the importance of the ability to read and write. This organization is
working dedicatedly for the poor students and also for raising awareness about education.
It feels really great when generous people donating time and money to help raise
awareness of the pressing need to improve literacy skills among the general people.
Literacy is a powerful tool for fostering peace and justice in the society. In the words of
Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations and a recipient of the Nobel
Peace Prize, “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a basic tool for daily life in
modern society. It is a wall against poverty, and a building block of development.”
Education is directly linked to every aspect of life and it is impossible for any society to
live in peace without being educated. Therefore Literacy is at the heart of basic education
for all. Literacy has far greater strength in contributing for the well-being and happiness
of a society. Literacy skills developed from a basic to advanced level throughout life are
part of broader competencies required for critical thinking, the sense of responsibility,
participatory governance, sustainable consumption and lifestyles, ecological behaviors,
biodiversity protection, poverty reduction, and disaster risk reduction.Literacy leads to
education in the full sense of the term. It empowers and enables us to broaden horizons
and work for our own interest.
However the sad part of humanity is, even today, still a huge fraction of our society
remains illiterate. According to latest data from Wikipedia the literacy rate in Bangladesh
is 57.7% which is very poor. The literacy percentage for male is 62% and for female it is
53.4%. That means in case of literacy women are lagging behind. The half of our
population is women. If they remain illiterate our country will never reach the highest
peak of success. Only a literate mother can give us a literate future. This organization has
worked a lot to bring the illiterate portion of our society into educational practice.Steps to
provide education to the women are really appreciable. It will help women empowerment
in our country which is very important. The steps taken for adult literacy is also
important.Street children hardly get any chance to study. The worker of your
organizations takes their class and provides educational equipment. I really liked that
idea. I hope you will continue doing so in the upcoming future.

2. Therefore Literacy as an important part of all forms of Education should be used as a
powerful weapon to gear the humanity towards a happier future - to stop violence and
promote universal peace. If our thoughts aren’t any different from those who are
practically illiterate, we are no different from them. Our education should be not only in
our certificates but also in our behavior and attitude. Let us take an oath to ourselves that
we will use our education for the peace and prosperity of our society. Let us be literate
for the good cause of the humanity. Finally,I would like to thank you for all your work
that you have done to provide education for the neglected people. Generous people like
you are the pride of our country. If more people like you start thinking about providing
education one day our literacy rate will reach 100%.I look forward to working with you
to bring the promise of education to every corner of our country. On this day, let us all
join together to dedicate ourselves for achieving literacy so that future generations can
look back with pride on our achievement. With this hope I would like to finish my
speech.
Thank you all for your attention.