Redefinition of Literacy Towards EFA Era : Focusing on the Mathematics Education 【Article】

The increment of information used to be regarded as a good thing unconditionally. However what werealize at the corner of this century is the unequal distribution of wealth and information which causesitself grow bigger and bigger than ever before. And it poses invincible tasks to humankind.The World Declaration, which has a symbolic meaning in the history of international cooperation,may become a cornerstone so long as we see some possibility in it and orchestrate our efforts toward theachievement of its goal. However, it may be degenerated into another empty doodle on the wall of histo-ry unless we translate these words into action. What we should do to change the possibility into the real-ity is to convert symbolism into practicability.It is our task to redefine the literacy as a basic ability in this declaration and to develop the discussionbased upon that definition. The critical thinking and creative attitude are the key concepts which createthe circulative channel between two sides which cannot be easily fused into one. They have beenemployed to enable not fusion but integration of the two mathematizations, science and technique.