by Hollie Nielsen, American Women of the Eastern Province
SDG 4 states: “Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to creating sustainable development. In addition to improving quality of life, access to inclusive education can help equip locals with the tools required to develop innovative solutions to the world’s greatest problems.” Its Target 4.6 specifically discusses literacy: “By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.” This article will discuss literacy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom is an oil-rich desert country constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. Its land mass (approximately 2,150,000 km2) makes it the largest sovereign state in the Middle East and the 12th largest in the world. Since the discovery of oil in the 1930s, the Kingdom has made great strides toward modernization. In recent years, the treatment of women has improved, including allowing Saudi women to work, drive and travel without their male guardian’s permission.
As part of this modernization process, Saudi Arabia has made considerable progress in improving its literacy rate. In 2015, the adult literacy rate was 95 percent, compared with 71 percent in 1992. The youth literacy rate in 2015 was 99 percent. Although within the overall population, men’s literacy rate (97%) is higher than women’s (92%), the disparity is significantly smaller within the youth population, where both male and female literacy hovers around 99 percent. This is a huge increase from the 2 percent literacy rate for females in the 1970s.
Literacy in the Kingdom has been improved by boosting the enrolment in thousands of schools, vocational colleges and universities. Primary and secondary education is open to everyone and free. Overall primary net enrollment was 98 percent in 2015, up from 85 percent in 2009. For girls, net enrollment was 98 percent in 2015, up from 94 percent in 2012.
King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud has set the ambitious goal of reducing dependency on oil sales and diversifying the economy by 2030. As part of the country's development plan, Vision 2030, the target is to eradicate illiteracy by 2024. The government granted SAR 192 billion ($51 billion) to the education sector in 2018. In line with SDG 4, the government hopes that by improving education and increasing literacy they will create a more stable, knowledge-based economy. In addition, higher literacy rates by 2024 will allow six years for improved knowledge to lead to a more diversified economy.
Building on the success of increasing youth literacy rates, the government has initiated programs to improve adult literacy in accordance with Target 4.6. Historical programs, such as the Adult Education and Literacy System of 1972, led to illiteracy rates falling from 60 percent in 1972 to 5.6 percent in 2018. With a new and improved approach, the Kingdom won prizes such as the UNESCO Prize for Eradication of Cultural Illiteracy in 1996.
Since illiteracy is a major barrier to economic development, the goal to eliminate illiteracy by 2024 has been applauded regionally, and Saudi Arabia could be a role model for the Arab world. “Among its many initiatives, the MOE [Ministry of Education] has rolled out adult education centers across the Kingdom, introduced lifelong learning initiatives, neighborhood learning programs, educational and literacy campaigns in remote areas of the county and implemented financially based reward programs to work toward an illiteracy-free society.” (Arab News, November 21, 2018)If the Kingdom is successful in eradicating illiteracy, this will set an example in the Arab world, and Saudi Arabia could share its methods. Alesha Anderson, from ProLiteracy, said: “Having a 100% literacy rate is ambitious, but when a government makes a commitment to address adult literacy issues in their country, we are excited as adults can often be left out of the national education agenda.” (Ibid.) In addition to benefitting the adults receiving literacy training, investing in mothers’ learning directly impacts and improves children’s literacy as well.
Literacy is important not just for tackling rapid changes in the global labor market, but for peace and stability in the Arab world and beyond.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia
https://borgenproject.org/girls-education-in-saudi-arabia/
https://www.scholaro.com/pro/countries/saudi-arabia/education-system
https://www.indexmundi.com/saudi_arabia/literacy.html
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/saudi-arabia-eradicate-illiteracy-2024
Arab News 11/21/2018: Now read this: How Saudi Arabia is aiming to end illiteracy by 2024
Saudi Gazette 1/13/2018: 100% Literacy by 2024: Saudi Arabia
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