The 2024 China International Confucius Cultural Festival kicks off on Friday night in Qufu, Shandong province, the birthplace of Confucius. [Photo by Yang Guoqing/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Three educational programs were honored with this year's UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy on Friday night in Qufu, Shandong province, the birthplace of Confucius, during the opening ceremony of 2024 China International Confucius Cultural Festival.

Sokola literacy education for indigenous Indonesians is awarded for combining first-language instruction with ethnographic methods and integrating syllables and phonetics to strengthen students' native languages.

It extends beyond basic skills to include digital literacy, media literacy, education for sustainable development, global citizenship and job-specific skills. Between 2021 and 2023, 200 participants benefited from the program.

The "FastTrack" program from Nigeria includes a bilingual method of language instruction, teaching both the national language and the learners' first language.

Since 2021, more than 19,000 refugees who has been displaced and out-of-school children across seven Nigerian states have completed literacy and life skills training.

Illiteracy Eradication Project in Egypt expands literacy initiatives to include non-Arabic speakers, digitalizes its adult education curriculum, promotes digital literacy skills and creates educational videos for all ages.

The project has graduated over 130,000 learners and aimed to address gender disparities in literacy and education access.

Confucius Prize focuses on functional literacy, leveraging technological environments in support of adults in rural areas and out-of-school youth, Stefania Giannini, assistant director-general for education at UNESCO, said in her speech delivered online for the awards ceremony.

"Once again, it's about putting an inclusion at the very core of our initiatives," she said.

Confucius (551-479 BC) was a Chinese educator and philosopher credited as the first to set up a private school to enroll students from different social classes. His thoughts and ideas have had a deep influence in China and beyond.

With the theme of Dialogue with Confucius: Mutual Learning among Civilizations, the 2024 China International Confucius Cultural Festival celebrates 2,575 years since the birth of the Chinese philosopher.