Egypt aims to reduce the literacy rate to 17.5% in 2022

CAIRO – 20 October 2021: Working hard to eliminate illiteracy, Egypt has set a comprehensive plan to end alphabetic and digital illiteracy among citizens of all ages.

This comes as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Plan aiming to declare “Egypt without illiteracy.”  

According to the Cabinet’s media center, the illiteracy percentage in Egypt reached 25.8 percent in 2017, prompting the government to set a plan to reduce the percentage to 17.5 percent by the year 2021/2022.

The government’s success, in this step, was reflected in the international acclaim and assessments of the Egyptian efforts made to improve the life, mind and future of the Egyptian person, and rely on digital technology in this regard.

In the below lines, et highlight the government's efforts in this regard:

- Egypt succeeded in eradicating illiteracy among 410,000 people out of a total number of illiterates during the year 2020-2021.

- Engaging university youths in cooperation with the competent authorities, which benefited 123 thousand people.

- Training 58,147 teachers and mentors at the Egyptian General Authority for Literacy and Adult Education.

- The Adult Education Authority prepared a curriculum that is suitable for people with special abilities, and opened special classes for them.

- Providing job opportunities for young graduates in illiteracy eradication programs.

- Media awareness of illiteracy eradication, through media convoys, meetings, and television and radio programs.

-       Implementation of the first phase of the "Dignified Life Without Illiteracy" initiative in July 2020, in 143 villages within 11 governorates.

- Egypt won the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy 2021 for Ain Shams University’s organizing of online literacy classes in rural areas.

-       Announcing the launch of the campaign to “end the illiteracy of one million citizens” in coordination with the Egyptian General Authority for Literacy and Adult Education and Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, under the umbrella of Haya Karima.