TEHRAN –A national program for enhancing the literacy rate in rural communities will be implemented in ten pilot provinces of the country.

The program is scheduled to kick off on August 22, Gholamreza Borouji, an official with the Literacy Movement Organization has announced.

“In line with the development plans of the Literacy Movement Organization to accelerate the literacy movement in the country, it has been decided to select 10 prioritized provinces of the country as pilots to implement the project,” ISNA quoted Borouji as saying.

According to the law, the literacy support council, in each province, and all relevant parties including government bodies will cooperate to carry out the program successfully, the official stated.

The village administrators are responsible for conducting the literate village project, and locating illiterate or poorly literate individuals with the help of teachers and local people in the village, the official added.

Accordingly, a database will be established to register them in the literacy system.

Borouji highlighted that the Literacy Movement Organization will support the provision of all stationery and other items needed by targeted individuals in pilot provinces.

‘Student movement’ to help promote literacy

The Literacy Movement Organization also plans to benefit from the capacity of students to improve the country’s literacy rate in the near future.

“In an effort to promote literacy and make illiterates more interested in learning, we will engage students and leverage their capabilities and knowledge in tackling illiteracy,” Pana quoted Borouji as saying.

High school students who are interested in teaching can volunteer to be chosen as teachers, he added.

They will primarily identify illiterate people in their families and relatives, and then register them in a system designed by the Literacy Movement Organization. Once the recorded information is confirmed, they can start teaching, the official said.

Finally, the learners will sit for an exam and get a certificate in case they successfully pass the exam, he added.

The main objectives of the plan are to lower the illiteracy rate in the country, make students more engaged with society by enhancing their interactions with others, and develop their communication skills. The students will also gain job experience which will serve as a valuable addition to their résumé.

Iran’s literacy growth rate 2.5 times the world's average

In the past four decades, the growth of literacy in the world has been about 18 percent, while in the same period, this figure in Iran has been 50 percent, IRNA reported.

Nearly one year after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Literacy Movement Organization was established by the order of Imam Khomeini with the aim of eradicating illiteracy.

At that time more than half of Iran's population, over the age of six, was illiterate. Now, Iran is on the verge of removing illiteracy.

Before the Islamic Revolution, a great number of children were deprived of attending school. With the population growth back then, the number of illiterate people increased.

Literacy Movement Organization’s goals

Eliminating illiteracy in the country, promoting cultural independence, and educational justice, were among the most important goals in the formation of the literacy movement.

The gap between literate males and females was 23.4 percent, which has decreased to 6 percent.

The implementation of the general mobilization plan for literacy in 1990 increased the literacy rate to 97 percent in 2023.

In 1990, more than 4.1 million illiterate people were educated within a decade, and in 1996, the literacy rate in Iran reached 79.5 percent (an 18 percent increase).

In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the figures reached 84.6 percent, 84.8 percent, and 87.6 percent respectively.

In 2021, the figure was 90.5 percent (in the age group of six and older).

These figures show a 42.5 percent increase in literacy rate after the Islamic Revolution. In 1976, 48.8 percent of those aged 10-49 (about 51 million people) were literate, while the figure was 94.7 percent in 2016, a 46 percent growth, reaching 97.1 percent in 2021.

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