TEHRAN – Iran’s Literacy Movement Organization has drafted a proposal on mandating school attendance to be brought before the Majlis (Iranian parliament). “The proposal will be discussed in the social commission of Majlis at the beginning of the Iranian calendar month of Azar (November 22)”, Mehr quoted MP Salman Khodadadi as saying.

Ali Baqerzadeh head of the Literacy Movement Organization noting the barriers to education, told YJC that one of the most important barriers since the 1979 Islamic revolution, was low social demand for literacy, in the other words, illiterate people are very reluctant to volunteer for literacy.

“Illiteracy is a social issue rather than an educational one, so we must act in the social sphere to manage it,” he added.

To do so, the first step is mandating education, which must be considered as a blend of the rights and responsibilities for each individual in the society, and the necessity of the issue must be emphasized, as many countries have already followed the steps, he further explained.

He also added that in this regard, we have prepared a proposal on compulsory education to be hammer out by the Majlis.

The organization offers education to three age groups of 10-19, 10-29, and 10-49 years old, Baqerzadeh said.

He went on to say that the literacy rate among Iranians between 10-49 years is estimated 98.2 percent, while the uneducated population in same age is about 190,500, and also the population aged 10-29 years is reported to have a literacy rate of 97.3 percent, and 668,800 uneducated individuals.

Moreover, the literacy rate of the last group aging 10-49 is about 97.4 percent, while some 2.6 billion of them are illiterate, he also added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he noted that foreign nationals living in the country is reported to have a literacy rate of 67.4 percent, and the number of illiterates is estimated at 600,000, of which the Afghans have the highest rates of illiteracy.

During the Iranian calendar years 1391 (March 2012-March 2013) and 1395 (March 2016-March 2017), the total literacy rate has reached 2.85 percent in Iran, while the global literacy rate among persons aged 15 years or above has been measured 1 percent, he further highlighted.

According to the literacy rate index, the total number of illiterates among individuals aging 6 and above is 8.8 million, of which, 6 million are above 50 years old, who do not include in our target community, he concluded.

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