Secretary General of United Nations has mentioned in his message at 8th Sep. 2005 (the same Iranian year 17th Shahrivar ,1384) on International Literacy Day, that this is still an unpleasant reality to have eight hundred million adult illiterate people in the world, two third of them are women. He said, “ Literacy is the heart of persistent improvement’’.
Kofi Annan said, “ More than 100 million children are not in schools and supporting literacy is less than their needs. This year the subject of International Day of Literacy is the role of literacy in persistent improvement’’.
 

He continued, “Experience and investigations shows that Literacy can be a major tool for eradicating poverty, enlarging employment opportunities, advancing gender equality, improving family health , protecting the environment and promoting democratic partnership. Literacy is the inseparable section of “public education’’ and both are sensitive and critical items in order to achieve stable development for people all over the world.”
“A literate home environment is a boon to child development, having a positive impact on how long girls and boys stay enrolled in school and how effectively they learn. In recent years, many literacy programs have become increasingly oriented towards local needs, especially through a focus on community development and environmental protection. Such approaches seek to provide an enriched version of literacy that goes beyond the basic mechanics of reading and writing to embrace life skills and relevant content.”
“As the basis and foundation of knowledge and learning throughout life, literacy is the heart of sustainable development. Nowadays there are approximately eight hundred million illiterate adults and two-third of whom are women. More than 100 million children are not in school. It is clear that support for literacy continues to fall well short of need. On this international Literacy Day, let us recall that literacy for all is an integral part of education for all, and that both are critical for achieving truly sustainable development for all.”
The valuable speech of Secretary General recited while somewhere else in the world, that is in Paris, the new plan of UNESCO for confronting illiteracy, named, “Knowledge for Ability’’ was approved.
This plan was approved in the 33rd session of UNESCO with attendance of representatives of 190 member countries in the domicile of this organization in Paris. The educational plan of “Knowledge for ability’’ is executed in the format of 9-year program called “Education for all’’, which is planed for the years 2003 through 2012.
The United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, is to decrease illiteracy all over the world to half, by 2015.
The plan called ‘’Education for all’’ will be executed in 34 member countries, which have at least 10 million illiterate people. According to UNESCO reports, there are at least 103 million children, who are not able to read, write, and even perform preliminary calculations. 85% of them are resided mainly in villages in the 34 countries.
It is important to mention that UNESCO will support countries which are able to execute this plan in order to provide and develop means of teaching, and evaluating the work stages.
The educational plan of ‘’ Knowledge for ability’’ in UNESCO will be executed in three milestones:
The first milestone will be executed from 2006 in Bangladesh, Egypt, Haiti, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, and Yemen.
The second and third milestones will be executed respectively from 2008 and 2010 in other UNESCO member countries.
Kushiro Matsuda the Secretary General of UNESCO, in the seminar of ‘’ Education for all’’, has requested all the people dealing with education all over the world, whether internationally or nationally to cooperate widely for in south countries, trying to execute the plan successfully. He said, “We should find new resources and energy to face this disaster called, illiteracy, in order to obviate this problem gradually from the world’’.
As the Secretary General of UNESCO says, in order to obviate the disaster of illiteracy should be acted promptly, both in international and national levels.
Looking at statistics in Iran shows critical situation regarding the illiteracy, although this is a rich, fertile and oil-bearing company.
The political-security assistant of Tehran office of governor general says, “11% of people in Tehran are illiterate. He believes that this matter is due to dislocation of population and immigration, so the orientation of education and training council should so that all people under the age of 30 become literate.
Another statistic shows: For the time being nearly 8 million of Iran people are not able to read and write and they make about 14.2 percent of the whole country population. The representative of Shadegan as a member of parliament says, ‘’ Some of the students in Shadegan study in sheepcote. At the moment 4 sheepcote study center exists in Shadegan and suburban villages and contrary to several announcements, no action is performed so far in this regard’’.
The director general of tribal education office reports that 58% of tribal classes are multi-grade having only one teacher. He says that 53 thousand of tribal students in the current educational year study in 2001 tents and 747 huts.
Mr. Abbasi during his interview with ISNA mentioned that 53% (3231) of tribal schools are mobile and semi-mobile. He stipulated that on this basis from 6100 tribal education units, 1462 schools are mobile, 1769 ones are semi-mobile, 107 classes are in containers and 6800 other tribal classes are multi-grade having one teacher each. He added that’’ 5479 tribal education units are primary schools, 477 units are guidance-schools, 113 units are high schools and 31 units are pre-university schools. He continued: Last year in 21 provinces of the country, 180356 students were studying in tribal units and it is forecasted that this statistic increases up to 182600 students. In this respect, 74% of the tribal students study in primary schools, 19% in guidance schools and 7% in high schools and pre-university schools. Mr. Abbasi says that 90% of tribal schools are in Sistan&Baloochestan province and stipulated, ‘’in some tribal districts, we are obliged to keep the tent classes due to life circumstances of students, but we can omit the huts.
He stated that 11% of tribal staff are soldier-teachers and 18% are freelance part time teachers. He said to ISNA that this matter has caused the state that 91% of tribal schools are handled in mixed form and 54% of student in primary education study in multi-grade classes having only one teacher.
As he says, only 15% (2100 people) from the total 14000 staff in tribal schools are women, while 78553 students are girls.
Abbasi mentioned to the lack of 4000 staff for tribal education and said, ‘’ The quota given for tribal staff is determined in teacher-training centers, on this basis for the last 6 years to date, 1600 people of quota from teacher-training centers are allocated to tribes and clans, and this year the number was 210 people.
On the other hand, the superintendent of education in Tehran city announced that 3800 classes in Tehran are rental, and said that among 356 rental schools, 132 schools have critical status and the order for their evacuation is issued. Javaheri added that among 356 rental schools some owners of the schools have accepted the rent contracts of education organization and have not returned to get the buildings back. He stipulated that on this basis 226 schools have rent contracts and anyhow do not have objections in this regard. He stipulated that some of these schools belong to foundations that can not be ordered to be evacuated due to budget bill. He reminded that in the current year totally 2 billion Toman (20 billion Rial) is allocated as focused credit rank for education in all provinces and it is anticipated that at least a quarter of the amount i.e. 5 billion Rial is allocated to education in Tehran.
Javaheripour continued, ‘’only for buying the most critical school of Tehran in district number 17, 8.1 billion Rial is evaluated and it shows that even if the total 5 billion Rial of credit is allocated, no school can be bought.
He emphasized that the government should increase this credit rank, or else the problem of 5% in councils should be solved, because according to councils’ law, provision number 3 of article number 13, municipalities have to receive the 5%, although this credit has not been received since Ordibehesht month (Iranian year 1383) due to interpretation of municipalities from this law.
As the superintendent of education in Tehran city says,’’ this organization has different interpretations regarding various foundations that the aforementioned law is not included in the law of cumulative taxes, and should be received’’. Therefore, we hope that having the agreement of mayor, the income department of municipality can receive this amount. He said that if this amount is received, the income rank of education organization will be increased up to 65 – 80 billion Rial which in current situation can solve only the problem of critical rental schools.
Finally Javaheripour added that coincident with the beginning of educational year, 11-13 schools in Tehran are evacuated and the students are transferred to second shifts or new educational projects. Reading the above-mentioned news regarding the education circumstances and the high rate of illiteracy in Iran reminds us as Iranian that we can study the figures and facts and compare the progress and development rate of foundations, organizations and governmental departments to conclude that obviating the misfortune-ominous illiteracy needs a widespread and national intention. Our previous experience makes us aware that we can not achieved a considerable success for obviating illiteracy without applying a scientific and surveyed method. We should use the experiences of other nations regarding literacy campaign in order to improve our success. It is important to mention that one of appreciable works during past years have been the activities of benevolent school-makers. It was seen in the news, that one of these schools, made by a benevolent school-maker has a capacity of approximately 600 students and started in Lavasan.
This high school comprises 20 classes of total capacity 560 students, equipped with 9 office rooms, conference room, sport hall, computer center, video-audio laboratories, praying hall, closed circuit television and audio-system in all classes. For constructing this school about 6.5 billion Rial is spent and as Haj Akbar Lavasani Dana (The benevolent school - maker) says, this is the third school he has built. This man not only has spent the construction cost but also has dedicated the land.