UN calls for improving access to literacy program in Afghanistan
Shigeru Aoyagi, the Country Director of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Monday urged all stakeholders in Afghanistan to take serious action toward improving access to quality, relevant literacy programming in the country.
UNESCO, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Human Settlements Program (UN Habitat) once again urged all relevant stakeholders to take serious action toward improving access to literacy programming in the country, especially for those areas most underserved, most vulnerable to exclusion and with high numbers of persons living in extreme poverty, Aoyagi told a joint news briefing with the representative of UNICEF and UN Habitat here.
"UNICEF provides support to the ministry of education to implement women's literacy course which benefit to average of 80,000 women each year. And 386,000 women have been benefited from this assistance since 2006," said Catherine Mbengue, the representative of UNICEF.
Mbengue also said that their organization has faced many challenges. The main challenge is that many people in Afghanistan believe that education of girls are not so important.
Afghanistan remains one of the least literacy countries in the world, where only 34 percent of the population can read and write,the majority of whom live in urban areas.
Michael Slingsby, representative of UN Habitat, noted that the rural areas are more alarming, 74 percent of Afghans (90 percent of women and 63 percent of men) lack of literacy skills.