ILLITERACY IN SAUDI

ARABIA

M. AL-WABEL – 10110039

CS – YANBU UNEVERCITY COLLEGE

ENG300

Advisor

Rafat Al-Rousan

2014/12/25

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was made as a part of the course ENG300. for the semester

141. This research was conducted on This research was conducted during

the last two weeks of the first semester of the academic year 2014. This

Search was conducted to find out whether the majority of people in Saudi

Arabia are illiterate or not.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................4

1.Definition of Illiteracy....................................................................................52.UNESCO............................................................................................................53.New Definition of Illiteracy..........................................................................64.Literacy and Educating the Elders...............................................................75.Illiteracy Around the World...........................................................................8

II. Illiteracy In Saudi Arabia

1.Now and then..................................................................................................112.How to over come illiteracy.........................................................................14

III. Conclusion..........................................................................................................16

1.Conclusion.......................................................................................................152.References........................................................................................................16

1. Introduction:

Despite the fact that the Arab world has the one of the highest rates of

illiteracy, almost 30% percent are illiterate. Saudi Arabia has one of the

lowest rates of illiteracy.

1.1 Definition of Illiteracy:

The illiterate defined as: A person who reached adulthood without

learning or perfecting the basic reading and writing and the four

mathematical functions.

This definition is a simple form of the meaning of illiteracy, especially

the literacy nowadays has expanded a lot to more than just knowing A

and B, though there are still more than a billion people around the world

in absolute ignorance.

Even though the definition of illiteracy does not have one meaning

agreed on from experts around the world, a result of the difference in the

determination of education standards and a minimum limit for the

education, still the committee of the United Nation has considered the

illiterate in the beginning of the fifties is the person who can not read a

written sentence in any language.

1.2 UNESCO :

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO) considers the illiterate to be the person who can not read or

write a simple statement about his daily life. And to be a functional

illiterate if they can not practice all the activities that require the

knowledge of reading and writing or proper functioning for his

community and can not continue use reading and writing for personal

development.

1.3 New Definition of Illiteracy:

The development in science, knowledge, and technology led to the

appearance of new concepts that surpass the traditional meaning of

illiteracy to define the illiterate as:"a person who can not use or deal with

computer for instance" and there is what it is called cultural illiteracy or

(the educated illiteracy) as some people call, is the case when someone

who has finished the general education or even university graduates but

they have not mastered the bases of reading and writing as should be

from people who have passed that stage. There is also something called

technical illiteracy which is defined as the absence of the basic

knowledge and skills to deal with machines, devices and modern

inventions and in its forefront is the computer. And in The Arab League

Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization the lights are shed on

the many kinds of illiteracy that are spread in the Arabic world which are

identified as:

1- Alphabet illiteracy: the person inability in school age or above to

read or write.

2- Functional illiteracy: which basically ends when illiterate learn

how to be productive person in his community.

3- Computing illiteracy: which is one of the diseases of this time and

a globalization tax that have been imposed in developing countries.

4- Political illiteracy: considering it is a widespread in the political

circle more than the people who follow the politics.

1.4 Literacy and Educating the Elders:

Which is defined as helping the person who has not been educated on

gaining the basic skills in reading, writing and calculating.

The movement of educating the elders began in the nineteenth century

in Europe, then expanded in the following century's as a result of all the

cultural development that came at the time. And the idea behind

educating people emerged in the forties and then developed in the fifties

to take the title of essential education and to the title of community

development, then two new concepts appeared: the functional education

for the elders and the continuous education, and finally came the concepts

of civilized literacy.

The concept of literacy has developed and passed the following stages:

1- alphabetic literacy.

2- Functional literacy.

3- civilized literacy.

The Fourth International Conference for elders' education that had been

held in Paris 1985 had distinguished between two kinds of illiteracy:

which are the functional illiteracy and the social illiteracy, and linked

between literacy and the elders' education considering it an essential step

for elders' education.

1.5 Illiteracy Around the World:

Competent reports indicate that the number of children who enrolled

in schools in 2005 was twice the number of any year before. But still,

about 115 million child around the world who are not enrolled in school

or did not continue studying, most of them are females (54%), the united

nation's children's fund reports indicate that the average rates of adults

who can read and write are 84%, foe males and 72% for females which

means that the average of illiteracy for the adults is about 12%. While

these rates in Niger one of the poorest countries in the world are 20% for

males and 9% for females which mean that the illiteracy rates are about

85% in general.

Depending on global report that came from UNESCO 2006 on

observing the education for all people, it was recorded that south and

west Asia had the least rate of literacy 58.6%, followed by Africa south

the desert 59.7% and then the Arabic countries 62.7%, and the countries

that recorded to have the worst rates of literacy are Burkina Faso 12.8%,

Niger 14.4% and Mali 19%, the reports also showed the link between

illiteracy and poor countries. Like Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India,

Mozambique, and Nepal where most of the people live on about two

dollars daily, the rates literacy declining to less than 63% and the number

of illiterates was more the 5 million people.

According to the UNESCO institute for statistics one of five elders is

still illiterate , and two-thirds the number of the illiterates in the world are

women, and regions like south and west Asia, southern the African desert

and the Arabic countries considered to have the highest rates of illiteracy

with about 70% of all the illiterates in the world.

Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) that belongs to the

UNESCO aimed for limiting the rates of illiteracy around the world to the

half by 2015, and in the cocept of comprehensive strategy aiming to

empowering the awareness to the importance of literacy, the countries

can lead themselves the LIFE's activities with what responds with the

national needs and suit the capabilities of their people.

In his letter on the occasion of the international day of literacy,

Koichiro Matsuura wanted to applued the achievements the men, women,

and associations around the world achieved in helping others saying:"On

the occasion of the international literacy day let their efforts and

commitment be a shining example on the power of literacy for others."

On the developing countries' scale, the rates of ability to read and

write are about 76.6% , that means the illiteracy rates are about 23.4%.

2.Illiteracy in Saudi Arabia:

The statistics indicates that the number of illiterate population in

Saudi Arabia has decreased.

2.1Now and then:

Recently the Kingdom has announced in ‘the international literacy day’

that it was able to demolish the portion of illiterate people from 60% in

1392H (1972) to 4% in 1433H (2012), meaning that this number was

achieved with in 40 years.

To understand how did the Kingdom manage to do that, we'll have

to know that the ministry of education in Saudi Arabia has but the first

program in run in 1392H (1972). It was first consisted of three years, but

then it was changed to 4 years. Tow years of learning, tow years of

continuation, and finally graduate as a student in primary school level.

Male Female0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Number Of Schools

figure 1

Male Females0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

Number Of Students

figure 2

Also, according to statistic, there are 3085 schools all around the

kingdom that teach 82797 illiterate students. Divided as 729 school for

male, containing 12638 students. While for female there are 2358 that

teach 70158 students.

Also, Statistic has shown that the central cities –Riyadh, Jeddah &

Dammam - has the least population of illiterates. For example in Riyadh

the percentage of illiterates males does not exceed 4% , while in Jazan

the percentage exceeds 10% meaning 1 out of 10 men in Jazan is

illiterate. As for females, Dammam has the least population of illiterate

With a percentage of 6%, while in Jazan the percentage is 15%.

As for preadolescence illiterates, their population is around 1.4% out

of the preadolescence total population. Which is Considered to be way

less that the population of illiterates with in the age of 65 or older, their

population is about 509,573 forming 73% of the total elders population. 

According to the latest budget announcement of the Saudi Arabia, it

was indicated that Saudi Arabia will spend around 150 Million SR. To

educate illiterates , which is less than last years amount where the

government spent around 200 Million SR.

2.2How to over come illiteracy:

Some Suggestions to over come illiteracy:

- Increase the quality of free education.

Usually government institute has less education quality than private

institute. Increasing the quality might attract a lot of new students.

- Focus on teaching the elders who live in remote villages.

Since the majority of illiterate people live in remote villages that are

usually hard to reach.

- Reward students with motivational pensions.

Aside from the pension the elders already have, they can use extra

income. Encouraging them to learn in exchange for money does not seem

bad idea.

- Provide various programs that can handle all levels.

To attract as many elders as possible, there should be variety of programs

that can handle all kinds of abilities instead of just having one class that

combine all elders.

- Start awareness campaigns.

Those campaign should target Bedouins to enhance their understanding

of the modern world.

3.Conclusion:

Saudi Arabia has made a peerless Success fighting illiteracy. Even thou

there are still few illiterate people lives in remote villages. But since the

numbers Seems promising, we can expect that Saudi Arabia will

demolish illiteracy with in 10 years. In general portion of illiterate

females is higher than males. The number of illiterates in central cites like

Riyadh and Jeddah is less than any other city. We can see that there is a

gap between men and women in terms of illiteracy.

1.2 References:

1- Illiteracy, what is the solution. By Dr. Juma’a Higaz. 2013

2- The portion of Illiterate females is decreasing in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/sauditoday/2013/10/03/%D9%86%D8

%B3%D8%A8%D8%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%

D9%8A%D8%A9%D8%A8%D9%8A

%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%

AF%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-15-.html

3- Functional illiteracy, wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

4- 100 Hour process to demolish illiteracy. By Dr.Ali Al-Qafas. Al-

dat Al-Arabiya Lelolom Nashiron, Lebanon.

5- Portion of illiterates has reduced to 61%. WAS, 2014/7/1

http://www.alyaum.com/article/3114108

6- Most of illiterates in Saudi Arabia are elders. Xinhua, 2014/3/4

http://arabic.people.com.cn/31662/6486341.html

7- Saudi Arabia will demolish illiteracy with in 10 years. Al-Riyadh,

2013/5/6

8- The kingdom is participating in the national day of literacy. Al-

Youm, 2012/12/7

http://www.alyaum.com/article/3058016

9- 150 Million SR. is the budget to overcome illiteracy. Al-Riyadh,

2014/5/6

10- Only 16% are illitraet in Saudi Arabia. An interview with the

prince of Madinnah, Al-Madinnah. 2012/12/3