JINAN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Three programs from Mexico, Egypt, and Cote d'Ivoire, respectively, were awarded this year's UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy on Monday in Qufu, east China's Shandong Province.

The award winners include a"Building & Growing" program from Mexico, an Egyptian program offering online literacy classes for rural areas, and a functional literacy program for traders in Abidjan through the use of information and communications technology from Cote d'Ivoire.

Qin Changwei, secretary-general of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, said this year's prize takes eradicating functional illiteracy and digital empowerment as its focus.

The Confucius Prize for Literacy was established in 2005 to recognize the efforts of inpiduals, governments, and NGOs in raising the literacy rate.

An educator and philosopher, Confucius (551-479 B.C.), founded Confucianism. It is a school of thought that had a profound influence on later generations. He was also the first to set up private schools in China that enrolled students from different social classes. Enditem