According to the head of the literacy department at the Directorate General of Education in Basra, Karim Handhal Abdul Karim, student participation in literacy centers in Iraq's southern province of Basra has dwindled in 2018 by more than two-thirds compared to 2013.

Abdul Karim told the press Nov. 22, "It is such a big contrast when comparing this year’s figures to those of 2013. The number of students in Basra’s 339 literacy centers amounted to over 39,000 in 2013. In 2018, however, only 1,200 students were enrolled in the 21 centers in the province.”

He attributed the decline to the fact that students enrolled in literacy centers are no longer paid by the government for taking classes at these centers.

The waves of displacement in the past four years are a reason behind the surge in the illiteracy rate in the country. More than 3.5 million people resided in camps with few or no schools or educational activities. As they returned to their homes in the governorates of Ninevah, Anbar and Salahuddin, they discovered that many of the schools that the Islamic State (IS) had used as a base were destroyed.