Algeria counts six million illiterate

Illiteracy reaches 21% of the population, the equivalent of six million people, said Algeria’s Minister of Education, Boubaker Benbouzid, here on Monday, August 23.

• «The number of illiterate people who will join schools this year is one million and a half on the existing six million, given that the current illiteracy rate in Algeria is 21%”, said Benbouzid during a meeting with directors of Education for the western localities.
• Preparing the new school year, Benbouzid has also discussed the measures taken by government to develop this sector, thus nearly 3.9 million pupils will receive books for free. And the school grants will reach 3000 dinars to be distributed in the week following the beginning of the school year, aiming to reach three million pupils.
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• In 2006 Algeria unveiled on the occasion of World Literacy Day (January 8th) a new strategy to eradicate illiteracy in the country. The new 10-year strategy will be implemented by a number of ministries, with a total budget of $55m, said the director of the National Office for Adult Education and Literacy (ONAEA), Zineddine Belbachir.
• Belbachir said that literacy classes would be offered in schools across the country.
• At that year Algeria had nearly 7 million illiterate people. The overwhelming majority of them were women and elderly people in rural areas and remote villages.
• Speaking on that occasion, Education Minister Boubekeur Benbouzid said the government will “improve educational facilities – schools, dining-halls and so on – and also the human, financial and material resources necessary to address this situation”. He said the plan put in place would aim at halving illiteracy rates by 2017.
• Tallal Amara, the head of the ONAEA’s Research and Education Department, said that the challenge Algeria and other Arab countries now face with regards to tackling illiteracy lies in raising the awareness of people living in remote areas regarding the damaging effects of not being able to read or write.
• He said an awareness campaign would target women, 63% of whom are illiterate. Amara said UNICEF statistics suggest many countries in the region managing to provide primary education for 80% of children, with Algeria leading the pack at 90%. However, no Arab country has managed to cut its illiteracy rate for adults by as much as 50%, although “the majority of Arab countries have seen reductions in illiteracy ranging from 20% – 49%.”
• According to the ONAEA, there were 177,594 students across the country attending literacy classes that year, 85% of whom are women.
• “I’m ashamed of not being able to read or write. I often have to find someone to help me write out cheques at the post office. Now that I’ve been going to literacy classes for a year, I think I’m starting to get back on track,” ma Aicha, in her late sixties, told Echorouk. The old woman regrets not having gone to school as a child. She now attends evening literacy classes.
• “My dream is to learn how to read the holy Koran and some other religious books. Now I am attending literacy classes and I am happy because this would help me realize my dream as soon as possible”, she added.