TEHRAN – The Literacy Movement Organization plans to educate more than 30,000 illiterate foreign nationals residing in the country, Shapour Mohammadzadeh, head of the Organization, has stated.

According to a census conducted in the Iranian calendar year 1395 (March 2016-March 2017), there are 2.6 million illiterates in the age group of 10 to 49 in the country, of whom 360,000 are foreign nationals.

“We provide education to 400,000 illiterates a year,” Mohammadzadeh said.

He made the remarks on the occasion of National Literacy Week, December 21-27.

Before the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), over 52 percent of people were illiterate, but now, the average literacy rate is over 96 percent, he noted, expressing hope that by identifying the illiterate and educating them, the illiteracy will be eradicated in the near future.

Fifty percent of the Organization’s activities are aimed at educating the illiterate and the rest are aimed at consolidating literacy, he said, adding, some 80 percent of the measures are related to girls and women. The illiteracy rate of women before the revolution has dropped from 26.2 percent in the 10-49 age group to less than 2.8 percent.

In urban and rural areas, in order to provide education to the whole population, there was a gap of 38 percent before the revolution, which is now decreased to less than 7 percent.

Out of 480 local learning centers, 120 are operating as e-learning centers. The literacy program of the armed forces, nomads, foreign nationals, illiterate parents, and prisoners is one of the activities of the organization, which for the first time will be broadcasted on national TV.

Referring to literacy incentive policies, Mohammadzadeh said that many provinces have special facilities for people who become literate. In fact, 20 percent of per capita income each year is given to people who become literate as an incentive.

Some 55,000 out of 600,000 people have been recruited so far, he added.

By the end of the Iranian calendar year 1398 (March 2019 – March 2020), we trained about 10,036 people, prisoners up to 60 years are covered by literacy training, 791,581 of whom have been educated so far.

Pointing to the literacy of the Armed Forces, he stated that so far, we have provided education to 546,114 illiterate armed forces.

FB/MG