Literacy Rate Growth Factor

1
Literacy RateGrowth Factor
2
Literacy Rate

• Usually there is a high correlation between the
  standard of living and the literacy rate
  (percentage of adults who can read and write).
• Literacy rates in the Middle East have improved
  significantly in recent years but are still low
  by US standards.

3
The Connection

• Those who cannot read or write have a very
  difficult time finding decent jobs.
• Lack of education also prevents many young people
  from becoming the engineers, doctors, scientists,
  or business managers that the modern economies
  need in order to bring improvements to their
  countries.

4
Education

• Many parts of SW Asia, particularly those where
  there tend to be fewer cities and towns, have
  lower literacy rates than one finds in Europe or
  the United States.
• Often schooling is only available to those who
  can afford to pay to attend.
• Many countries in this region are working hard to
  raise literacy rates among young people.
• Girls tend to have less opportunity to go to
  school than boys in many areas of SW Asia, a
  problem these countries are trying to correct.

5
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

• Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have a reasonably
  high standard of living and literacy rate that
  ranges from a low of 63 in Saudi Arabia to a
  high of 87 in Turkey.
• With a per capita income of 28,000, Israel has
  the highest literacy rate in the Middle East at
  97.

6
Gaza Strip

• With 80 of its people living below the poverty
  line, the Gaza Strip manages to have a literacy
  rate of 92.
• The United Nations Committee for Children
  (UNICEF) has supported education in the Gaza
  Strip in an effort to offset the unstable,
  sometimes violent political environment.

7
Afghanistan

• Afghanistan has been in political turmoil since
  the mid-1970s.
• The Taliban, a violent political group, was in
  power until the United States invaded in 2003.
• The United States expanded education to include
  women, whose literacy rate had been less than 3.
  
• Still, the overall literacy rate in Afghanistan
  is only 28 and the standard of living is roughly
  800 per person per year.

8
Iraq

• Wars in Iraq over the past two decades have hurt
  both education and the economy.
• The literacy rate is 74.
• Although the government is rich from oil revenue,
  the income per person in Iraq is estimated to
  have been only 3600 in 2007.