Mobile tech promotes literacy in developing countries: Unesco

Mobile technology is facilitating reading and improving literacy in developing countries where illiteracy rates are high and physical text scarce, a Unesco study said Thursday.

The report "Reading in the Mobile Era" highlights that hundreds of thousands of people currently use mobile technology as a portal to text.

The study was conducted in seven developing countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

"Findings show that in countries where illiteracy rates are high and physical text is scarce, large numbers of people read full-length books and stories on rudimentary small screen devices," said an official statement.

According to the statement, there are 774 million people in the world, including 123 million youth, who can't read or write.

Drawing on the analysis of over 4,000 surveys and corresponding qualitative interviews, the study found that a large number of people read stories to children from mobile phones.

It also inferred females read far more on mobile devices than males, and both men and women read more cumulatively when they start reading on a mobile device.