Oman is exerting concerted efforts to reduce adult illiteracy by employing digital and social media platforms to reach the largest possible number of people seeking adult education.
According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), illiteracy rate in the 15-44 age group decreased to 0.46 per cent in 2021 compared to 2.2 per cent in 2015.
To mark International Literacy Day, celebrated on September 8, MoE released these figures and joined the rest of the world to raise awareness and concern about literacy problems that exist in local communities as well as globally.
On the occasion, an official of MoE said, “The ministry is currently working on developing a lifelong learning system, by formulating a new literacy strategy to keep pace with the accelerating dynamic and digital changes.”
The ministry is focusing on employing modern technology in the field of adult education through digital applications. “It is also registering students in literacy and adult education systems electronically, and using social networking sites to raise awareness of continuing education programmes.”
Distance learning
About MoE’s efforts to fight illiteracy, the official said, “Making illiteracy a national issue, the ministry has set up a number of support projects through partnerships between government and private sector institutions. These include the ‘Training Bag Project’ that contains basic scientific material to be used to train teaching staff in literacy classes.”
The ministry is enhancing the use of visual communication systems in implementing training workshops and forums for specialists in the field, and using the ‘Educational Mawred’ channel in YouTube for adult education classes.
Unesco defines literacy in its modern sense as the ability to access, manage, understand, integ-rate, communicate, evaluate and create information securely and appropriately through digital tec-hnologies that enhance scope of employment and entrepreneurship.
Source: https://www.muscatdaily.com/2022/09/11/raising-digital-reach-to-fight-adult-illiteracy-in-oman/