Education Minister Mahmoud Abul Nasr said that 2014 will be the year illiteracy will be eradicated, targeting an estimated three million illiterate Egyptians.
This statement came at a meeting with the minister of state for environmental affairs, the Swiss ambassador in Cairo and the UNESCO representative in Cairo.
According to a study by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in 2012, the total number of illiterate people aged 10 years or more in Egypt had exceeded 16 million, with over half (approximately 10.3 million) being females. Also, a large percentage of the elderly population was shown to be illiterate.
The study also found that Upper Egyptian governorates had the highest rates of illiteracy, with illiteracy in Minya reaching 36.7 percent, Beni Suef 34.8 percent, Fayoum 34.7 percent, Sohag 34.3 percent, Assiut 31.7 percent and Qena 30.3 percent.
Meanwhile, illiteracy in Cairo was 17.4 percent, followed by Alexandria with 16.5 percent.
According to CAPMAS, illiteracy rates among youth aged 15 to 24 was only 8.5 percent whereas people aged 60 or more were much more likely to be illiterate with a rate of 62.3 percent. This indicates that illiteracy may drop in the future.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
