Mobilize for Literacy Education

This national conference brought together representatives from government officials, multi- and bilateral organizations, NGOs, private sectors, communities, experts from the field, and media.

Dr. Sardar Mohammad Rahimi, the Deputy Minister for Literacy Education, in his opening speech stated that Afghanistan is one of the countries with the lowest literacy rates. According to UNESCO, in 2015 the literacy rate in Afghanistan is only 38%. He added that annually there is an increase of only 1 % in the literacy rate of Afghanistan. The National Literacy Department has only 2 % of the education budget. With this percentage the National Literacy Department is not able to raise the literacy rate of 10 million people of Afghanistan.

In addition, Dr. Rahimi presented a new concept notes on national literacy mobilization and inclusion of literacy at national and international development agendas.

He also underlined that Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are building a bridge between state and nation and advocacy is part of their key activates. Therefore, National Literacy Department has designed the outline of the concept notes to convince the CSOs to advocate for inclusion of literacy at national and international agendas, increase of state budget for literacy and support the DMoEL in public awareness and monitoring of literacy services.

The National Literacy Department of Afghanistan has presented three key points in the concept notes on this conference:

Advocacy by civil society for inclusion of literacy at national and international developmental agenda
Implementation of a mechanism for national mobilization program to eradicate illiteracy in Afghanistan
Highlight the role of private sectors in education and create partnership

Furthermore, the participants discussed the concept notes. At the end, Mr. Rahim Jami from WBRAO/MSQEA Organization read out the Declaration of the Literacy Department on literacy problems of Afghanistan.

You can download the pdf format of the concept notes from below link:

http://anafae.af/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Literacy-Day-2017-Concept-Note.pdf