Al-Jazirah newspaper published an article last week about how the illiteracy rate in the Kingdom has decreased to 3.75 percent among Saudi men and 9.92 percent among Saudi women. These figures were given by Abdulrahman Al-Barrak, an undersecretary at the Ministry of Education. He compared the figures to the rate of illiteracy in 1972 which stood at 60 percent. In my opinion, the decrease in illiteracy has occurred because most of those who were illiterate in 1972 have now passed away. The decrease is not because those who were illiterate have been taught how to read and write. Let us be realistic, the literacy programs implemented over 40 years ago are no different from the programs of today. Though many things have changed in our society, for some reason these programs have not. That is why so many students drop out of our education institutes without acquiring the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. Most of those who are illiterate left school early with poor reading and writing skills. The stipends given to illiterate students have never increased, and although ministry officials talk about their intention to address this issue, nothing has been done about it. Illiteracy programs should focus on the reasons why a large number of students drop out of school without the basic skills in reading, writing and arithmetic. There is a need to reorganize the curricula, focus on illiterate students and make the curricula more attractive and exciting. Illiteracy hinders development. It is, therefore, important that clear-cut goals for our students are set to prevent illiteracy. We are supposed to start teaching our children at an early age before enrolling them in schools, the majority of which are unfortunately chaotic. We have still not realized the significance of starting education at an early age although this phase is considered critical in building effective human beings. If special programs were designed for this stage of a child's development, the mentality of Saudi society would change in the future. Generally speaking, our society is emerging and improving in terms of education and learning. However, this does not exempt the ministry from establishing more practical objectives for the future of our society. Let us establish realistic objectives instead of making pompous and grandiose statements.
