Iran: Official figures reveal persistence of high illiteracy

                       

The head of the state-run Literacy Movement Organization in Iran has acknowledged that some 10 million Iranians over the age of 6 cannot read and write.

In a meeting with the officials of the Southern Khorasan province, Ali Bagherzadeh said: “There are 9,719,000 illiterate in the country out of which some 8,000 are in this province.”

Based on the latest figures presented by this official, over 13 percent of the country of 76 million are illiterate.

According to UNESCO, in literacy, Iran is rated 84th among the world’s 164 countries.

In Iran also there exists a high rate of inadequate literacy. Nearly 61 percent of women and 43 percent of men above the age of 25 have education levels of about middle school, according to a report by UNESCO in 2011.

Traditionally, by definition, any person who cannot read in one language has been considered literate. But in today’s word reading and writing alone could not make a person literate.

In addition to having the ability to read and write, a literate person must also have some specific skills so that the person can effectively participate in public life.

In some societies, a person who cannot use the Internet is considered to have low literacy skills.
The official figures in Iran are not reliable as the state-run organizations are known to manipulate the figures to show a better of view of social situation under the mullahs in Iran.