The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's goal of achieving 100 percent international literacy by the year 2000 led the United Nations General assembly to proclaim 1990 as International Literacy Year. This proclamation was linked to the formulation of a plan of action to assist member states in all regions of the world to wipe out literacy by the end of the twentieth century. The goals of International Literacy Year include the following: (1) to promote better understanding internationally of the problems of illiteracy; (2) to strengthen and revitalize existing primary education programs; (3) to encourage new programs to reach adult illiterates; and (4) to promote the struggle against reverting to previous levels of illiteracy. There are a number of major international efforts to promote literacy, largely through the International Task Force on Literacy, a coalition of over 35 international nongovernmental organizations involved in adult education and literacy. UNESCO will publish a study this year arguing that unless an all-out effort is made to boost the quality of primary schooling, making it accessible to all children, and to give education renewed financial priority, the fight against illiteracy will be lost. (VWL) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education)