RAY: Sanaa weekly, 14-4-98. [Archives:1998/16/Press Review]

(League of the Sons of Yemen – RAY)

Main Headline:
1- Exiled opposition leader, Al-Jifri: “The President is serious in calling for national reconciliation, but the power centers want to keep the status quo.”
2- Despite the President’s affirmation of freedom of expression, security men arrest RAY figures.
3- The President declares a number of austerity measures and rationalization of public spending to offset budget deficit caused by the drop in oil prices.
4- Minister of Justice demands the lifting of parliamentary immunity of an MP accused, along with his sons, of murdering an army colonel.
Article Summary:
Illiteracy in Yemen
By Nadir Al-Siroori
The ratio of illiterate people in Yemen is 55%, rising to 76% among females. About 63% of illiterate people live in the countryside. The real danger lies in the fact that thousands of people, aged between 6 and 15 years, join the illiterate every year by failing to get enrolled in primary education. About 250,000 people annually join the 5 million illiterate people in Sanaa alone.
Due to lack of resources, the 1997/98 target of the Eradication of Illiteracy Organization has dropped from educating 338,0000 persons to only 20,000. The 1996-2000 plan envisaged eradicating illiteracy among 1,610,200 persons. This plan was abandoned two years later for failing to achieve any of its goals.
The eradication of illiteracy curricula must be modernized, considerably more resources should be allocated, programs to eradicate illiteracy at the workplace must be implemented, school truancy must be controlled and public awareness should be raised.

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