JEDDAH, 29 August 2004 — Under the support of Princess Sarah Al-Anqari, wife of Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, the first program of the National Awareness Campaign focuses on eradicating illiteracy and will be launched next Saturday.
Addressing a press conference at Effat College yesterday, one of the main participants in the program explained the goal and details of the program.
“The campaign aims at eradicating alphabetic and cultural illiteracy among women because the mother is the maker of generations and through her, all of society benefits,” said Abdullah Al-Mohammadi, assistant director of Girls’ Education in the Makkah region.
Alphabetic illiteracy refers to the inability to read and write while cultural illiteracy deals with civilized and responsible behavior.
Jeddah will be first in the Kingdom to launch the campaign under the slogan, “My country, I love you.” The first phase consists of six seminars and workshops that will end on Sept. 23. The program has been approved by the Ministry of Education based on its 2003 agreement with the United Nations. The program runs for ten years — with a slogan “Illiteracy eradication is everyone’s responsibility.”
Najwa Battiekh, director of Adult Education and Illiteracy Unit, said, “This is a continuation of the Kingdom’s successful efforts at eradicating illiteracy which has culminated in its being the first Arab country to receive an award from UNICEF because of reducing illiteracy to 22 percent in two years, down from a high of 60 percent.” The unit’s programs also include teaching computer courses and English.
Mohannad Al-Khayyat, the director of Sword Advertising which is the media consultant and organizer of the program, said that the cultural literacy program addresses six main issues: intellectual literacy (accessing and analyzing correct information), religion, social, health, environment and safety. The campaign will use different ways to reach the target audience of housewives and both government and private sector employees between the ages of 25 and 50.
The campaign will continue for a whole year with details of subsequent phases to be announced later.
Once the full program has been approved by the Ministry of Education, it will be implemented but the biggest problem to insure the program’s continuation and implementation is funding, according to Al-Khayyat.
“We have had difficulty in convincing the private sector to participate in the campaign because unfortunately many businessmen are only concerned with profits,” he said. To follow and check on the campaign’s daily progress and activities, visit the website www.alnokhba.com.
