Oman to eradicate illiteracy by 2024

Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Ministry of Education joins the world in celebrating the International Literacy Day, which falls on the 8th of September every year.

The Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman – represented by the Directorate General of Special Education and Continuing Education – is working on a number of projects related to the eradication of illiteracy, drawing on its local expertise and the best international practices commensurate with the local environment, including a project to employ modern technology in the field of continuing education through digital applications for eradication Illiteracy and adult education as mechanisms for registering learners in the literacy and adult education systems electronically, as well as the use of social networking sites to raise awareness of continuing education programs.

National Centre for Statistics and Information’s (NCSI) data for 2022 showed Oman’s illiteracy rate dropped to 2.6 percent among individuals ages 15 and above.

The Sultanate of Oman also seeks regionally – represented by the Ministry of Education – to commit to implementing the provisions of the Arab Decade to Eradicate Illiteracy (2015/2024) and its recommendations, which were approved by the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, for the member states of this decade to become free of illiteracy in the year 2024, as the Sultanate of Oman seeks To implement its contents and provide the necessary funding to achieve the stipulated items, appropriate plans and strategies were developed for that. In order to achieve the desired goal of the Arab Decade, which is for the Sultanate of Oman to be free of illiteracy by the end of 2024, the Ministry focused on eradicating the illiteracy of the productive age group (15-44) during the contract period. The statistics received from the competent authorities showed the percentage, so the illiteracy rate in the aforementioned age group was (0.44%) at the end of the year 2023, and compared to the percentage of the same group in the year 2015 at the beginning of the Arab Decade period, this percentage was (2.2%). This is a qualitative achievement in eradicating illiteracy in the aforementioned category. The Sultanate seeks to achieve its commitment by 2024.

It is worth noting that the total number of male and female teachers in literacy centers and divisions in the educational directorates in the governorates in the academic year 2022-2023 reached (8,631) male and female teachers, while the total number of male and female teachers in literacy eradication for the past academic year 2022-2023 was (2,623) male and female students.