Illiteracy is a danger that threatens the progress of society in an expanded discussion symposium held by the Educational Resala Foundation

Proceeding from its belief in the advancement and educational reality of society and its constant endeavor to overcome all the problems that contribute to the illiteracy of society, the Educational Resala Foundation, in cooperation with the General Directorate of Education in Baghdad / Rusafa Third, held an extensive discussion seminar entitled (Illiteracy is a threat to society) regarding the Directorate’s preparations for the implementation of the (National Project) Literacy) on the Hall of the Hakim Youth Forum in Sadr City. A large number of directors of literacy centers participated in it within the geographical area of responsibility for raising Rusafa Third, and a number of representatives of civil society organizations, the teachers’ union, elders and dignitaries of Sadr City, representatives of municipal councils, as well as a number of specialists in educational affairs, in addition to representatives of the Ministry of Education for the literacy project. , They are both Dr. Azhar Ibrahim, Head of the Training Department in the Executive Authority for Literacy and its Media Officer, Mr. Yahya Al-Saffah, and researcher in the Research and Documentation Department of the Agency, Zaidoun Najm Abdullah,
The symposium began with the presentation of the documentary film on literacy, which was produced by the Department of Media in the Education of Rusafa the Third, then Professor Zaidoun Najm Abdullah, a researcher in the Research Department of the Ministry of Education, spoke about literacy projects in Iraq and their laws and the extent to which they achieve their goals, explaining the most prominent obstacles that prevented them from achieving these goals. The goals are as decreed for them, wishing for the current national project to benefit from the failures of previous projects and to overcome mistakes to achieve success and the desired goals of this project,
While Mr. Muhammad Al-Daraji, Director of the Literacy Department in Rusafa Third Education, talked about the population density of the directorate’s responsibility, the reality of marginalization suffered by Sadr City in the time of the former regime and the policies of exclusion, restriction and ignorance that resulted in the spread of illiteracy and children dropping out of schools and heading to work and seeking livelihood due to difficult living conditions suffered by the people of the city. He added: The number of illiterate people in the city is about five thousand, which is the percentage that the Ministry of Education staff were able to count, while the statistics of the Ministry of Planning indicate that there are more than (12) illiterate people in it, and according to what is available to us The Directorate has mobilized its staff in the Literacy Department and Schools with an inventory of preparation and opened literacy centers that exceeded (24) centers and it is proceeding to open other centers, and they are distributed among (33) centers for males, and (42) centers for females, the total number of enrolled so far is about ( 3023 ) students distributed between (1,776) male and (1247) female students. The directorate provided curricula, administering centers and preparing sufficient schools for six hours per week, distributed on Friday and Saturday of each week,
On the date of the start of the study and the provision of educational staff, the Director of the Literacy Department in the Directorate explained: The non-disbursement of the financial allocations for the project caused a delay in the start of the educational staff in the centers, in addition to the lack of a clear mechanism for the recruitment of male and female teachers, but we relied on the participating donors from the teachers. And they have our sincere thanks and gratitude for their kind initiative, but this does not fill the need, and the Ministry of Education and the administration of the Executive Authority for Literacy Eradication have been informed of this matter for fear of the collapse of work on this project,
For his part, Mr. Muhammad Kazem Abd Ali, the media official of the Literacy Department in the directorate, explained to the attendees the media effort that the directorate is doing for this project and its production of a representative film explaining the dangers of illiteracy on the individual and society, and the printing of a number of posters for the project in cooperation with the Educational Mission Foundation, and the work Ongoing coverage of this project,
The symposium came out with a set of important results after the extensive discussions that took place among the attendees, the most important of which are: the need to expedite the provision of the necessary budget allocated for the success of this project, and the need to establish a clear mechanism for the recruitment of male and female teachers to cover literacy centers for the purpose of continuing the study in them. Staff who have experience in this field. The attendees also pointed out the lack of media interaction necessary for this project, and it is necessary to invite the media and satellite channels to actively contribute to the success of this great national project,
The attendees also reviewed the mechanism of work of the executive body to eradicate illiteracy and the details of Resolution No. 25 of 2011 approving the national literacy project and the mechanism for implementing its paragraphs. They also discussed previous literacy projects and identified the shortcomings and weaknesses in them, in order to overcome them in the next stage,
At the end of the symposium, the attendees commended the initiative of the Educational Mission Foundation in providing the educational process with ideas and proposals and its support for educational projects that would raise the scientific and educational level in order to advance the educational reality in the service of our dear Iraq.