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Who was awarded the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2011?

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The prize rewards mother tongue literacy work; the 2011 winner was an African national literacy body.
Updated On: Jul 17, 2026
  • Nelson Mandela
  • National Literacy Service, Burundi
  • Medha Patkar
  • National Literacy Mission, India
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The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

First fix what the prize rewards, then the answer follows. The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, created in 1989 with backing from the Republic of Korea, honours work that spreads literacy in a person's mother tongue. It is named after King Sejong, who gave Korea its Hangul script. Now weigh the four options against that.

  1. Nelson Mandela: South Africa's first Black President and a Nobel Peace laureate of 1993. His life's work was ending apartheid. He is not a literacy programme and did not win this prize.
  2. National Literacy Service, Burundi: This body ran mother tongue literacy classes in Kirundi for rural adults, with a strong push for women who had never been to school. That is the exact brief of the King Sejong prize, and it took the award in 2011. This is the answer.
  3. Medha Patkar: An Indian activist who led the Narmada Bachao Andolan against big dam displacement. Her field is rehabilitation and the environment, not adult literacy.
  4. National Literacy Mission, India: A real literacy body launched in 1988, so it looks plausible and is the trap for Indian candidates. It was not the 2011 King Sejong recipient.

Only the Burundi service matches the prize's mother tongue criterion for that year. Keep in mind that UNESCO runs two literacy prizes side by side, the King Sejong prize and the Confucius Prize for Literacy, and each names more than one winner in most years.

Let us summarize:

  • King Sejong Literacy Prize: instituted 1989, funded by the Republic of Korea, for mother tongue literacy.
  • The 2011 award went to the National Literacy Service of Burundi for teaching reading in Kirundi.
  • Mandela and Patkar are activists in other causes; India's National Literacy Mission is the familiar but wrong pick.

So the correct option is (B), National Literacy Service, Burundi.

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