Illiteracy rates rise in Dhi Qar to 30% due to lack of educational centers

The Committee on Education and Higher Education in the Council of Dhi Qar warned of the high rates of illiteracy to more than 30 percent in the poor areas of the province, attributed to the rise to the decline of literacy programs due to poor financial support for the teachers and teachers, and stressed that the reduction of literacy centers of 739 In the first phase to 37 centers in 2017.

The head of the Higher Education and Education Committee in the Dhi Qar Governorate, Shaheed Ahmad Hassan Al-Ghalibi, told Al-Mada that "the number of illiteracy in recent years has been increasing, and their percentage has exceeded 30 percent of the population due to the decline in interest in literacy programs, As well as ministerial decisions that try to bypass the free education by reducing the stationery and limited to the first three grades of primary school. 
"The decision of the Ministry of Education to reduce student quotas of stationery will contribute to increasing the number of students who drop out of school and thus increase the illiteracy rates among the poor." 
"The decision to reduce stationery is a big and blatant violation of the free education," he said. "This decision was rejected because it affects the most important gain for the poor and prevents the education of their children."
"The most important thing that characterized the education in Iraq is the necessity of education and free of charge, and any prejudice to these two features is certainly reflected in the level of education and leads to its decline." 
"The high rates of poverty in the province have been a factor in the high illiteracy rates, families that are unable to meet the requirements of life can not provide the requirements of study for its members and therefore can not send them to school," adding that "illiteracy is part of poverty or is a reserve for him". 
On literacy programs in the province, Al-Ghalibi said that "the approved literacy programs proved to have failed over the past years for several reasons, notably the lack of support of the federal government for these programs and inability to provide the necessary funding to implement them in full." 
He added that "
He explained that "the literacy project in the 2017-2018 school year has 57 centers in limited numbers of students after it had 739 centers of about 60 thousand students in the first phase, which began five years ago." 
He added that "literacy programs were launched in the province several years ago depends on the grant of financial hoaxes for students in literacy centers, which made the turnout of these centers large in time, but these hooves were not acted only once and then cut off, which led to the lack of students The study and thus led to a decline in numbers significantly. " 
The head of the Education Committee in the province of Dhi Qar that "
He added that "the number of centers is limited in administrative units in the province, each administrative unit does not exceed the number of centers where the centers and these centers do not achieve the purpose required because they are not effective and not commensurate with the large numbers of illiterates in the province and more than 30 percent of the population of the province of two million breeze". 
He called on the decision-makers in the federal government to support and activate literacy programs and provide their requirements and the allocation of incentives for students. 
Al-Ghalibi stressed the importance of ensuring the success of programs to combat illiteracy and not to invoke the financial deficit and the expenses of the war against Dahesh. The problem of illiteracy is more dangerous than what is called for. 
Pointing to "the need to adopt effective central programs for literacy, involving all the government departments concerned and be supported financially with sufficient budget to implement its vocabulary"
The Department of Literacy in Dhi Qar announced earlier the opening of 57 literacy centers in all the cities of the province within the academic year 2017-2018, while he confirmed the development of a plan to receive students during the sixth year of the literacy project. He pointed to the lack of cooperation of government departments in obligating their staff to join literacy centers, indicating that the proportion of cooperation does not exceed 20% in all government departments in the province. 
According to reports by United Nations agencies, the illiteracy rate among Iraqis is 24%, of which 11% are men, while in rural areas it is 25%, while in urban areas it is only 14%.
The civil society organizations in Dhi Qar said earlier that the rates of illiteracy in the province increased by 35 percent, with the high numbers of females to unprecedented levels. The Committee on Education and Higher Education in the province of Dhi Qar revealed on (19 September 2017) a ministerial decision to reduce the proportion of students from the stationery and limited distribution to the first three grades in primary schools, while the Committee is the decision that constitutes a threat to the benefits of free education and compulsory education, Warned of the high rates of dropout of students from school and the worsening problem of illiteracy.