Saudi Arabia's literacy rate reaches 96 per cent

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Saudi Arabia has achieved a remarkable literacy rate of 96 per cent with religious institutions playing a crucial role.
About 99 per cent of children, including girls, are now going to schools with one or two new schools opening daily in the country, said Abdul Rahman Al-Modairis, director-general of education in the country's Eastern Province.
According to the last demographic survey conducted by the Ministry of Economy and Planning in 2007, illiteracy among the Saudi population stood at 13.7 per cent.
"The Kingdom has made remarkable achievements in its relentless struggle against illiteracy and has scaled down the illiteracy rate from 60 per cent in 1972 down to four percent today," Arab News quoted him as saying.

A recent World Bank report suggested that the relatively high adult literacy rate of Saudi Arabia is derived from the successful use of religious organisations, particularly local mosques and local religious institutions such as Quranic schools.
The Gulf kingdom developed a syllabus for adult education in 1956 and began implementing it in 1957. The next major move made by the government to support the literacy drive was to establish the General Secretariat for Adult Education in 1984.

"We look for the day when the Kingdom will achieve a total eradication of illiteracy," Al-Modairis said ahead of the World Illiteracy Eradication Day.

Al-Modairis said that 21 adult education centres have been opened in various parts of the province in which 600 people are now studying. This is in addition to 72 adult women literacy centres, expected to teach 1,550 women.
For men and women who could not complete their school education, the government has opened a number of night schools and intermediate and secondary schools, said Al-Modairis.