[Omah]

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/001...62/146282e.pdf

Illiteracy in the Arab world
Hassan R. Hammoud 2005

Improvement of Female Literacy. Female literacy rates 15 and over (Table 1) in the Arab world today range from 24 (Iraq) to 85.9 percent (Jordan). Between 1990 and 2000- 2004, six Arab countries ranked above the world average of 76.5%. Bahrain raised it female literacy rate from 74.6% to 84.2%, Jordan from 72.1% to 85.9%, Kuwait from 72.6% to 81%, Lebanon from 73.1% to 82%, Qatar from 76% to 82.3%, and the United Arab Emirates from 70% to 80.7%.

However, despite such a great strides in female literacy in these countries, high rates of illiteracy among women persists in the majority of the Arab countries, indeed women today account for two thirds of the region’s illiterates and according to the Arab Human Development Report 2002, p.52, this rate is not expected to disappear “not until 2040”. Several factors seem to account for such a deficit, chief among them are the low base in primary enrollment from which such countries started, the slow down in the rate of increase in enrollment during the 1990s compared with the 1980s, with an apparent bias against female (AHDR 2002, p.52), the decline in public expenditure on education since 1995 (AHDR 2003, p.52), in addition to “a decline in political commitment or inappropriate approaches to rectifying the situation”.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/regi...07-28-1.272076

Arab World needs to rise to the literacy challenge

Illiteracy rate in the Arab World is around 35.6% compared with a global rate of 18%

By Nadim Kawach
Published Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Kuwait has the lowest female illiteracy rate in the Arab World.

Arab nations have more than 70 million illiterate people and nearly two thirds of them are concentrated in five regional countries, according to the Arab League.

The number means the illiteracy rate in the 21-nation Arab League is currently estimated at 35.6 per cent, nearly double the global rate, said the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (Alesco).

The problem is underscored in Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Morocco and Algeria, which have about 48 million illiterates, nearly 68 per cent of the total.