Arab Literacy Day observed

MUSCAT: The Sultanate, represented by the Ministry of Education along with the Arab countries, is participating in the celebration of the Arab Literacy Day, which falls on January 8th of each year.

The Sultanate aims to celebrate this day to raise the awareness of the society about the problem of illiteracy, encourage illiterate people to join literacy classes, and attract local community institutions to support and fund the ministry’s programmes and projects in this field. It also highlights its efforts in this regard, represented by a call to all community members to stand united in order for the Sultanate to become illiterate-free as soon as possible.

The celebration is accompanied by the launching of the Arab Literacy Decade (2015-2024) adopted by the Arab League to be a decade for the eradication of illiteracy throughout the Arab world in all its forms (alphabetical, digital and cultural), to which the Sultanate has joined as a partner with other Arab countries to fight illiteracy.

The Sultanate has defined the age group from 15 to 44 years as the target group during the period of implementation of the terms of that contract. The number of illiterates in this category is 24,694 illiterates by the end of 2016 according to the data received from the competent authorities. It is planned that the Sultanate will become illiteracy-free country in this age group by 2024.

Plans have been made for the literacy project for illiterate Omani working in the private sector through the creation of educational formulas suitable for the private sector in agreement with the target companies in the project, which aims to erase the illiteracy of illiterate Omani working in the private sector in order to accelerate the eradication of illiteracy in the Sultanate during the period set by the Arab Literacy Decade (2015-2024).