The number of “absolutely illiterate” people in Iran is estimated at nearly 10 million, said the chairman of the Parliament Committee on Education.
Terming the illiteracy statistics “shocking,” Ataollah Soltani-Sabour also said there are over 10 million people in the country with low literacy levels “who mostly haven’t even completed elementary school.”
Although no exact statistics are available of the children who abandon school for work, he said “fortunately 99 percent of school-age children are enrolled in schools.”
Criticizing the high rate of illiteracy in the country, he blamed the Literacy Movement Organization (LMO) – established in 1979 to educate illiterate adults – of distancing itself from its main responsibility in recent years.
Although since 1997, elementary education has became compulsory for all people, no organization has been supervising the implementation of the law so far, he said, adding that the negligence of responsible bodies and authorities has led to an increase in the average illiteracy age.
Attributing the high rate of adult illiteracy partly due to lack of motivation, he called for the LMO to reset its goals and define a new agenda for educating all the illiterate people below 40 years.
