Global literacy gaps widen as pandemic isolates children: How colonial publishing models and digital divides deepen inequity
Original framing: “IPA, WHO and UNICEF launch Read the World on International Children’s Book Day to support children and young people in isolation” — WHO News
Children in refugee camps (e.g., *Rohingya* in Bangladesh) or conflict zones (e.g., *Yemen*) face literacy barriers compounded by gender discrimination—girls are 2.5x more likely to be excluded from education. The initiative’s digital focus ignores that 60% of displaced children lack any access to devices, per *UNHCR*. Marginalized voices, such as those of *Dalit* children in India (who comprise 20% of school dropouts), are absent from the narrative, which treats isolation as a universal experience rather than a structurally reinforced crisis.
The *Read the World* initiative exemplifies how global education ‘solutions’ often replicate colonial patterns of cultural extraction and linguistic erasure under the guise of philanthropy.
By centering Western authors and digital access—without addressing the structural barriers of colonial publishing infrastructure, the digital divide, or the psychological trauma of isolation—it perpetuates inequities rather than mitigating them. Historical precedents, from the *British Raj’s* suppression of Indigenous texts to the *UN’s* repeated failures to enforce mother-tongue education rights, reveal a pattern where ‘access’ is prioritized over *decolonization*. The trickster lens exposes the absurdity of celebrating ‘inclusivity’ while excluding the very voices that could redefine literacy, much like *Anansi’s* tales reveal the exploitation hidden beneath seemingly generous gestures. To move forward, solutions must dismantle the power structures of global publishing, center Indigenous and marginalized epistemologies, and treat education as a human right—not a charitable act. The path lies in *restorative justice* models, digital sovereignty, and trauma-informed pedagogies that honor the full spectrum of human knowledge, not just the fragment offered by colonial legacies.