CAIRO: Illiteracy rate among Egyptian women has reached percent24.7 while it recorded 36.7 percent among men, according to the 2015 population survey conducted by the Ministry of Health.
“40 percent from the illiterate women are under the poverty line, 73.8 percent of whom are elderly women while 51.8 percent of the illiterate men are of old ages,” head of the family and population sector within the health Ministry Atef al-Shishany said without specifying the ages the survey is based on.
A 2014 report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) estimated the illiteracy rate in Egypt with 26 percent among the whole population while in year 2006 it recorded 29 percent.
In 2013, illiteracy rates reached 25.9 percent, with 17.2 million illiterate Egyptians, while in 2012 the rate was 24.9 percent with 16.1 million Egyptians unable to read or write, according to the CAPMAS.
According to the Egyptian Authority for Educating Adults, Greater Cairo, comprising of Cairo, Giza and Qalyubia governorates, has an illiteracy rate of 15.9 percent as of July 2014.
Asyut, an Upper Egyptian governorate, recorded the highest rate of illiteracy at 30.2 percent, whereas the Red Sea governorate has the lowest rate, at 6.8 percent.
Education Budget for the fiscal year 2014/2015 is estimated at approximately 87 billion EGP. However, officials say that 90 percent of it is assigned to wages.
The Egyptian constitution, passed in 2014, obliges the government to spend four percent of the budget on education.
According to the World Factbook of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), approximately 75 percent of the world’s 775 million illiterate adults are concentrated in 10 countries, one of which is Egypt.