For the first time in history, North Africa’s education may finally be on the verge of meeting western standards. The countries in the region number seven, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and the Western Sahara, and are currently seeing a 99% rate of enrolment of children of a schooling age as stated by the United Nation’s 2014 Millennium Development Goals Report. Compared to 80% in 1990, this is a massive step forwards.
Through the achieved goals made between 2000 and 2015, the way for the next level of global developments has been paved, said Fethi Debbabi, Deputy Director of the United Nations’ Information Centre in Cairo. â€The North Africa region is also moving closer to the point where male and female literacy rates are equal because the rate at which young women learn to read is growing at a faster pace than that of young men.â€
The overall youth literacy rates have also dramatically improved, with rates improving from 67% to 89% between 1990 and 2015. Of these, 29% more young women are able to read, as are 16% of young men. Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, said in a recent press conference that millions of lives have been drastically improved as a result of the countries’ successes in achieving their Millennium Development Goals.
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[Source: Daily News Egypt – North Africa approaching universal access to primary education]