Why has illiteracy rate gone up in Iraq?
As the Iraqi government has failed to improve the education sector, the illiteracy rate has increased significantly in different parts of the country.
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.”
