Despite the conflicting numbers regarding the illiteracy rate in Iraq, it is proven, according to local, official and international sources and statistics, that there are millions of Iraqis suffering from it. Contributed to reducing the illiteracy rate.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that “the illiteracy rate in Iraq is regarding 12% among the population aged 15 years and over,” noting that “this percentage rises among women to regarding 18%, compared to 9% among Men, and it also rises in rural areas to regarding 20%, while it decreases in cities to regarding 11%”.
Al-Hindawi revealed that “these indicators are low compared to what they were 10 years ago,” noting that “the decline in illiteracy rates is due to two things, the first is the increase in the net enrollment rate in primary school to regarding 94%, and the second is the policies of the Ministry of Education in opening Adult education centers have contributed to reducing the illiteracy rate in Iraq“.
While the Iraqi government with its various concerned ministries, headed by the Ministry of Education, sees that illiteracy is declining in the country, critics and experts believe that the percentage announced by the Ministry of Planning is large and a cause for concern, which requires the development of emergency and decisive plans to raise the pace of confronting the danger of illiteracy that afflicts millions of Iraqis. .
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The opinion of the Ministry of Education
The official spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Karim Al-Sayed, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia :
* As a ministry, we have many plans to combat and reduce illiteracy, the most prominent of which is our endeavor to amend the legislation aimed at expanding the scope of literacy and reaching as many people as possible in illiteracy programs, which requires the provision of larger and more centers and independent buildings, as many centers are merged with schools.
* The current goal is to secure access to primary education for those who suffer from illiteracy, but we aspire later to obtain intermediate and secondary certificates..
* Also, working to expand community support for literacy programs is a primary goal for us, as we especially seek to attract women and girls to literacy centers, especially in remote and poor areas. This is in addition to the primary certificate on a professional profession that helps them professionally and in life .
* We are more interested in reducing this rate of illiteracy, and we need more allocations in this context, as Iraq, the country that invented writing and was a pioneer in eradicating illiteracy, due to the compelling circumstances it went through at certain stages, in which the illiteracy rate increased slightly, but the Ministry of Education and the Literacy Agency They seek actively, through constructive plans and programs, to reduce the illiteracy rate in the country, leading to its eradication .
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For his part, the writer and researcher on Iraqi affairs, Ali Al-Baydar, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia :
* This is a huge percentage in a country that taught the world to write and write the first letter in the alphabet, as we are talking here regarding more than 5 million illiterate Iraqi citizens, out of regarding 42 million people, which calls for immediate and radical plans and solutions..
* Undoubtedly, the factors for the increase in this percentage are complex and intertwined, most notably corruption, lack of planning, mismanagement, wars, conflicts, and turmoil that ravaged the country internally and externally for decades, in addition to the spread of poverty and destitution, which led to the emergence of the phenomenon of students dropping out, and not entering schools in the first place in many regions. Especially in peripheral and marginalized environments, which caused severe damage to the education sector.
innovative solutions
* Addressing this disease must go beyond the traditional solutions pursued by the Ministry of Education, and despite the existence of a special apparatus for eradicating illiteracy, the degree of government interest in this urgent issue is very weak, as it does not provide sufficient budgets or the necessary personnel to advance the process of combating illiteracy, in addition to the absence of incentive mechanisms that attract Millions of people who are denied the right to education and cannot read and write.
* Since illiteracy eradication centers can, for example, transfer studies in evening or even remotely, because many of those who wish to join them and because of their association with their work and life, professional and family concerns, cannot attend these centers.
