Nearly Ten Million People in Iran are Illiterate

On Thursday, December 20, the head of Iran's Literacy Movement Organization announced that there are approximately 9 million and 820 thousand illiterate individuals in Iran. According to Tasnim News Agency, Ali Baqerzadeh stated this in the city of Birjand, mentioning that the current priority of the Literacy Movement Organization is to educate individuals under 49 years of age. Mohammad Mahdizadeh, the educational deputy of the Literacy Movement Organization, had previously stated on May 22 of this year to the state news agency IRNA that 3 million and 450 thousand illiterates are under 50 years old, while 6 million and 300 thousand are over 50. Before the announcement of the 9 million and 820 thousand illiterate individuals in Iran, the state news agency IRNA had reported in May that nearly 10 million individuals in Iran are completely illiterate and about 11 million are semi-literate. Meanwhile, the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, reported in September of this year, quoting the head of the Literacy Movement Organization, that the highest illiteracy rates are related to Iran's border provinces. Ali Baqerzadeh attributed this issue to 'the main reason being the decline in maximum educational coverage and a lack of attention to cultural issues.' IRNA also pointed out in a report in May this year the challenges in eradicating illiteracy in Iran, such as 'the lack of a suitable and complete database of illiterate and semi-literate individuals, reluctance among the illiterate, the failure to identify uneducable groups like the mentally disabled, low motivation among educators, and negligence by the Literacy Movement Organization in this regard.' The entry of school dropouts into the illiterate cycle, ethnic prejudices, and the prevention of girls' education in some cities and villages were also other challenges mentioned in IRNA's report. In this context, ILNA reported on December 19 that '156 thousand Iranian children have not gone to school this year,' according to the Deputy Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare. IRNA also quoted Shirzad Abdollahi, a journalist and education expert, stating that 'statistical problems' are one of the challenges facing the Literacy Movement Organization. According to Abdollahi, the statistics from the Literacy Movement Organization regarding the number of semi-literate and illiterate individuals, as well as those who have become literate through the organization, 'are not reliable.' He said, 'Sometimes in a village with a population of 100, the number of people reported as literate is 150. This number may even have been recorded twice.' In the meantime, the newspaper Etemad reported on July 19 of this year about the fight against illiteracy in Iran: 'An examination of official statistics on illiteracy rates over the past years shows that 35 years after the establishment of the Literacy Movement Organization, Iran is not in a suitable position regarding literacy.' According to this newspaper, Iran 'is ranked eighty-sixth in literacy among 164 countries worldwide based on UNESCO statistics.' Etemad reported on the concern of Hassan Rouhani's government regarding the existence of about 10 million illiterates and quoted Eshaq Jahangiri, the first vice president of Iran, stating: 'The government cannot be indifferent to the illiterate population of the country and will spare no effort to eradicate illiteracy.'