Egypt to achieve zero illiteracy within 3 yrs

CAIRO – 6 June 2018: Egypt’s Ministry Of Local Development announced targeting the elimination of illiteracy in Egypt, along with raising Egyptians' capabilities in the next three years. The ministry affirmed working toward achieving the zero percent of illiteracy goal in Egypt.

In a statement issued on Wednesday June 6, the ministry stated four principles necessary to achieve its plan. First: The Universities Supreme Council's decision on obligating each student to teach up to eight illiterate people will be activated.

Second: Organizing training courses for trainers to boost their skills. Third: Exerting more efforts with the youth and giving them the chance to participate with their suggested strategies so they would become more affective. Fourth: Provide rewards and bonuses for youth participants in the illiteracy elimination program.

This plan is set to eliminate illiteracy in Egypt in three years. The statement explained that their strategy will include comprehensive developmental and cultural vision.

In 2014, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization (CAPMAS) and Statistics announced that over a quarter of the Egyptian population is illiterate; 18.5 percent of males and 33.6 percent of females cannot read or write.

Greater Cairo, which consists of Cairo, Giza, Shubra el-Kheima and several cities on the outskirts, has an illiteracy rate of 15.9 percent. Of Greater Cairo’s female residents, 20.5 percent are illiterate, versus 11.3 percent of its male inhabitants.

Assyut, an Upper Egyptian governorate, suffers the highest rate of illiteracy at 30.2 percent, whereas the Red Sea governorate has the lowest rate, at 6.8 percent.

According to the World’s Women 2015 report, published every five years, 781 million adults over the age of 15 are illiterate; more than 496 million of them (two thirds) are women. In Egypt alone, women and girls constitute 10,469,330 of the illiterate population, compared to 7,596,425 males.

A more recent study by CAPMAS published in 2017 places illiteracy at 20.1 percent in Egypt, or 14.3 million individuals, with women forming 9.1 million of the total number. Women constitute almost 64 percent of the total number of Egyptians above the age 9 who can’t read or write.

According to Egypt’s 2030 vision published by the Ministry of Planning, illiteracy is expected to fall to the minimum percent in the coming years.





On May 18, the Ministry of Planning announced that Egypt recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of 5.4 percent during the third quarter of fiscal year 2017/2018.

She added during a press conference that 400,000 job opportunities have been provided in the third quarter, distributed among 20 percent in the agriculture sector, 14.1 percent in the retail and trade sector, 7.5 percent in the transportation sector and 12 percent in the manufacturing sector.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also expected on May 9, that Egypt’s growth rate to record 5.3 percent in 2018 and 5.5 percent in 2019, up from 4.3 percent in 2016 and 4.2 percent in 2017, with an increase of 0.8 percent.

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors unanimously approved, last April supporting Egypt’s national education strategy to develop pre-university education with $500 million. According to a statement issued by the Investment and International Cooperation Ministry, the bank said that the fund will support increasing access to quality Kindergarten education, improving the quality of learning and adopting technology as a vehicle to achieve the reform objectives.

The project will expand access to quality Kindergarten for around 500,000 children, train 500,000 teachers and education officials, while providing 1.5 million students and teachers with digital learning resources, the statement read
.