Iraq looks to tackle problem of adult illiteracy
As Iraq’s population has been struggling with conflict and drought since the 1980s, many older, illiterate Iraqis are now trying to learn how to read and write under challenging circumstances.
A video of Iraqi peasant Umm Imad from the city of Ramadi, 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Baghdad, has been circulating online among Iraqis. The video reveals the inability of the elderly woman to understand school lessons.
Although the video reflects the difficulties that those who have missed their chance of education face when returning to school at a later age, it also shows the willingness of some to learn how to read and write, at a time when the Iraqi Ministry of Education seeks to foster the role of literacy centers.
Umm Issam, 55, resident of Karbala, a city 108 kilometers west of Baghdad, does not care about obstacles and has decided to battle ignorance. With the help of her daughter Alia, 20, she learned how to read, and she can now read the paper and, most important, the Quran.
Alia, who was in her last year of a three-year bachelor's degree program, said, “My mother was determined to learn and she tried to take lessons, but she failed due to the traditional teaching methods and the inability [of the instructor] to transmit the message correctly to the students.”
