The recent census in Egypt showed that the illiteracy rate in the country went down from 39.4 percent in 1996 to 29.3 percent in 2006, said Minister of Education Yousri El-Gamal said Tuesday during the opening session of a conference on adult education, held in cooperation with Unesco.
The Minister said the government plans aim to cut down illiteracy rate to roughly 10 percent in five years, according to reports by the State Information Service (SIS).
The Minister s speech to the conference was read out by Raafat Radwan, Chairman of the General Authority for Literacy and Adult Education.
The Higher Education Council is currently considering a project that every undergraduate student teaches an illiterate person for one year as a prerequisite to get his certificate.
