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[nomad soul]

Half a million Saudis under 35 are illiterate
Saudi Gazette | 11 November 2014
Source: http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141111224078

DAMMAM — A total of 524,435 Saudis aged 15-34 have not received any education, according to the Central Department of Statistics. In a report published by Makkah daily on Monday, the department said the citizens in this group were made up of 270,972 males and 253,463 females. They account for about 5 percent of the 10 million citizens in this age group.

A number of experts considered this to be a high rate taking into account the huge budgets allocated for education and literacy campaigns. Other experts said the number consisted of many mentally and physically challenged people who were not able to enroll in schools. Thoraya Al-Arid, an education expert and Shoura Council member, said a number of family and societal factors had to be taken into account. “Many low-income families are not usually keen about the education of their children,” she said. She also blamed behavioral problems, including the use of drugs, to be among the factors preventing young men and women from having access to a proper education. Al-Arid noted many girls were married while at the elementary school, thus preventing them from receiving any education. “Large families may ignore their children’s education because they cannot bear the financial costs,” she said.

Al-Arid said the non-existence of a law making it obligatory on parents to educate their children is one of the factors that caused illiteracy among young men and women. She called for drafting a law that would allow the imprisonment of fathers who do not maintain a minimum level of education for their children. “In the West, the father who fails to provide his children with education until the secondary stage will be punished,” she said. Al-Arid also called for raising the age of marriage for girls, making education compulsory until the intermediate level and implementing rules preventing the employment of children.

Abdulaziz Al-Dakheel, chairman of the Saudi Society for Social Studies, said: “The number of the uneducated Saudis seem to be reasonable when we take into account the large number of autistic and children with special needs who cannot go to schools. “The number of rehabilitation centers for disabled children is little and these centers are only found in big cities and towns. This also adds to the large number of the uneducated.” Al-Dakheel called for making education obligatory until the intermediate level. “Fathers who leave their children uneducated should be penalized under the law, especially as the government has been lavishly spending on education,” he said.

Ahmed Al-Mofreh, member of the education committee at the Shoura Council, said the literacy programs of the Ministry of Education have greatly reduced the number of uneducated citizens in the Kingdom.
“The adult education programs, the literacy campaigns and the summer education camps will further reduce the number of illiterate citizens,” he said. Mofreh said most uneducated citizens live in villages and hamlets involved in agriculture and animal raising and they prefer doing these jobs to going to school. “You cannot convince these people to quit their jobs or leave their places to go to school,” he said.

(End of article)

* * * * * * * * *

The literacy rates for the MENA (per the UN Human Development 2014 Report on Literacy):

(The first percentage refers to overall literacy for those age 15 and over; the second is for males; the third for females)

Algeria: 91.8%---91.8%---91.8%
Bahrain: 94.6%---96.1%---91.6%
Egypt: 73.9%---81.7%---65.8%
Iraq: 80.2%---89%---73.6%
Jordan: 93.4%---96.6%---90.2%
Kuwait: 94%---94.4%---97%
Lebanon: 89.6%---93.4%---86%
Libya: 94.2%---98.6%---90.7%
Morocco: 67.1%---76.1%---57.6%
Oman: 81.4%---86.8%---73.5%
Palestinian territories: 95.6%---98.1%---93.1%
Qatar: 96.3%---96.5%---95.4%
Saudi Arabia: 86.6%---90.4%---81.3%
Sudan: 71.9%---80.7%---63.2%
Syria: 79.6%---86%---73.6%
Tunisia: 88.3%---95.1%---80.3%
United Arab Emirates: 77.9%---76.1%---81.7%
Yemen: 63.9%---81.2%---46.8%

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

[veiledsentiments]

I noted that these numbers are "self-reported" and thus highly suspect. I would say that most are WAY higher than reality. For instance, in Oman, I would estimate that 80-90% of adults over the age of 45 are illiterate. For my first years at SQU in the 80s, almost none of the students had literate mothers and only 2 or 3 of the 25 in each class had a literate father.

They have done well with those who started school after 1970, but even with their baby boom, I think that these numbers are high. But certainly more accurate than some of the others. No way that 81% of Yemeni men are literate or 81% of Egyptian men.

Of course, there is also a difference between literacy and functional literacy... and that may be where the over estimate comes from...

VS

[scot47]

Teaching EFL to those who are not literate in their mother tongue is a challenge !

In the "West" for many years it was assumed that illiteracy had disappeared but in fact quite a significant number of those finishing compulsory education are illiterate.

[veiledsentiments]

It certainly is a challenge. I only encountered it in the US with immigrants... one Vietnamese and one older Syrian woman.

It is highly unlikely that you will have that problem in the Gulf as most are teaching individuals under the age of 40 and they have all had compulsory education, so they are "sort of" literate to different levels.

It is the parents and grandparents of our students that grew up before widespread education had arrived.

VS

[Heaton]

The article is about people who haven't been to public school, not ability to read. Apparently, the editor who wrote the headline doesn't know what 'illiterate' means.

[dustdevil]

Looks to me like the article is saying illiteracy is due to lack of education.

"Al-Arid said the non-existence of a law making it obligatory on parents to educate their children is one of the factors that caused illiteracy among young men and women."

[johnslat]

Goodness - next thing you know, someone will claim hunger is due to a lack of food.

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

[MuscatGary]

[veiledsentiments]

It was obligatory in the years that I was there for both girls and boys with varying ages when they could leave. It was also true in the rural areas. It was a major goal of the Sultan - that may be ignored now as with many laws in the Gulf.

VS

[Mushkilla]

[MuscatGary]

[veiledsentiments]

Or... shocking concept, I know... wikipedia could be wrong. In the early 90's, the ages required were different for males and females. Each year they were extending the age for girls... and were visiting the families - mostly rural - that were refusing to send their girls to convince them of the importance of education. But I doubt that there was ever any punishment for not sending your kids. There is a long history of passing laws that are never quite enforced. They tend to use the cultural pressure and things have obviously worked as SQU has significantly more female students than male.

VS

[MuscatGary]

I asked a couple of sheikhs about this over the weekend and they said it's a bit like the seatbelt law, they're supposed to strap their kids in but nobody can force them to do it as it's the parent's absolute right to let their kids go through the windowscreen. Same with education, they're supposed to send them but it can't be enforced especially if the goats need milking.