Of the province's 4.2 million people, 161,760, or 3.85 percent, are illiterate, according to data at the West Nusa Tenggara Education and Sports Office.
Office head Moh Tha'ib told reporters in Mataram that the provincial administration was working hard to wipe out illiteracy.
"Despite pessimism among certain parts of the community about the administration's ambitious program to fight illiteracy, we are confident the program will succeed," Tha'ib said.
He said the program had received attention from the central government for the past three years.
East, Central and West Java, along with South Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua, also have high levels of illiteracy.
In 2005 the number illiterate people in West Nusa Tenggara aged between 15 and 44 reached 222,040.
But least 60,280 illiterate people were given access to training courses last year, Tha'ib said.
"With generous fund allocations from the state budget and regional budgets this year, we are optimistic about wiping out illiteracy among the 161,760 people this year," he said.
This year alone, the illiteracy eradication program has been financed to the tune of Rp 51.6 billion (US$5.73 million), of which Rp 36.2 billion was taken from the state budget, Rp 7.5 billion from the provincial budget and Rp 7.9 billion from regency and municipal budgets.
Tha'ib said that people between the ages of 15 and 44 were given priority because they were the most productive years.
Out of the 162,760 illiterate people, 38,765 live in West Lombok regency, 38,765 in Central Lombok, 41,684 in East Lombok and the rest in Mataram, Dompu regency, Bima regency and Bima city.
Only Sumbawa and West Sumbawa regencies were able to eradicate illiteracy among their citizens last year, Tha'ib said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment