Illiteracy has been noted as one of the key issues distressing the growth of the Egyptian economy. According to experts, they define an illiterate person as one who cannot read or write. A report printed by the Egyptian Authority for Educating Adults, on July 2014, indicated that the general illiteracy rate was around 21 percent. The figure given, 21 percent, is a good reason for the Egyptian government and the citizens to be worried about. It is a fact that numerous problems in developing world are as a result of this problem-illiteracy. A country cannot develop as expected if it fails to address this issue on time since the country cannot develop by itself, but by its people. It is said that knowledge is power, since literate people are able to do their things efficiently as compared to illiterate people who are more subjected to tricks- with knowledge comes invention which can generate the country more wealth, thereby, leading the country to the journey of becoming developed. Literature review has it that the Red Sea governorate has the lowest rate of illiteracy (6.8 percent), while the Assyut leads, since the rate is depicted to be around 30.2 percent. The majority of the illiterate people in Egypt consist of the female gender (Nafie, 2003).
In this paperwork, I am going to perform a detailed research, whereby, I will be discussing about the causes of illiteracy in Egypt and the solutions to this problem. It is important to note that this is a problem that has existed in Egypt for many years, thereby, limiting the potential growth of the country’s economy.
I will start by discussing the causes of this problem as depicted from literature review - reports published by the government press. The head of the General Authority for Literacy and Adult Education, Dr Mustafa Rajab, informed the Gulf News that some girls are indebted to assist out with the domestic responsibilities, hence dropping out of school. He also reported, one of his observations, that illiterate mothers who come from the poorest households do not have the guts of encouraging their own children’s education, since they are financially insecure and would rather expect them to work in their farms so as to boost their family income (Schneider, 1933).
Some parents may be concerned about their children education, but as a result of financial insecurity, their children are more likely to miss school. We can, therefore, point out that poverty is one of the root causes of illiteracy in Egypt. In the rural areas, where the problem of illiteracy is dominant, experts have found that most of the schools offer poor quality of education, hence the reason why a huge number of student lack basic skills of writing and reading. The instructors also lack adequate teaching skills, since most of them are young graduates. These young graduates are after money and, hence end up paying little attention to the quality of services they offer. It is also noted that parents who never went to school are more likely not to take their children to schools, since they may lack to see the importance of educating them- parents’ lack of education (Nafie, 2003). Illiterate husbands have a negative perception about educating both their daughters and wife’s. The husbands, illiterate husbands, believe that the major purpose of a woman is to serve her house. Many of the illiterate husbands lack the will of learning, comforting themselves that they have a farm and wife to take care of, hence increasing the pool of illiterate people. It is a fact that an illiterate person is less likely to improve his family compared to someone who can write and read. As I noted earlier, an illiterate person is faced by more challenges when it come to addressing his or her problems efficiently. It is also noted that early marriages has played a big part in the contribution to female illiteracy for example, research has it that about 80 percent of females in Upper Egypt governorates do not go to school.
Through a literature review, a lot of solutions have been suggested, so as to heal the country from this issue- illiteracy in Egypt. The Egyptian Authority for Educating Adults intends to get rid of the illiteracy of 3,500,000 people by the year 2015. It plans to achieve this goal though the establishment of community education schools that are designed to sign up school dropouts. It is important to note that the Egyptian Authority for Educating Adults has also come up with a post-literacy program that assists in equipping the graduates with the appropriate skills, so as to start small projects that are aimed at reducing the pool of illiterate people (Abdoun, 2009).
The fight against illiteracy cannot be won by the government alone, but it has to be conducted by all the citizens. The business firms are required to combat illiteracy among their workers.
Marketing and providing training through television is another method of eradicating illiteracy, but for this to work it needs alertness, so as to have a more successful impact to the citizens. The family should also support the illiterate person to continue with his study, hence becoming a fully literate person. The instructors play a very important role in illiteracy eradication process, they must be able to induce and persuade the people to study (Abdoun, 2009). It is important to note that schools have been established that are aimed at providing professional schooling and coaching on revenue generating businesses, hence ending up with a literate society-developed country. It is, therefore, important for the government and the citizens’ to ensure that the above given solution are implemented (Schneider, 1933).
References
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Rashed, Dina (2002), Life Choices, Al Ahram weekly Retrieved (25/12/2009) from
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Schneider, J. S. (1933). The extent of illiteracy in Oxyrhynchus and its environs during the late third century, A. D. NA: NA
