An estimated 24,000 foreign nationals, mostly Afghan refugees, have been covered under the literacy programs in the current year (ends March 20), said Ali Baqerzadeh, head of Iran’s Literacy Movement Organization (LMO). Despite the progress, there are still 150,000 illiterate adult Afghan refugees living and working in the country, IRNA quoted him as saying. However, the overall rate of illiteracy has declined among the refugees. “In the last decade, their literacy rate was about 6%, which has now increased to 60%.”
