“Arab Literacy Day”
is celebrated on January (8th) of every year, the first literacy movements in the Arab
began world after the "Arab
League" Conference on (29) December 1954, the "Arab League" decided in 1966 to create the “Arab Network
for Literacy and Adult Education”, which aims to make literacy efforts across
the Arab world, the "Arab League"
adopted in memory of creation of the network in 1970 celebrating it on the 8th
of January of each year, the "Arab League for Educational, Cultural and Scientific
Organization” said in a statement that the number of illiterate people in the
Arab world, rose to (70) million in 2005, up from (50) million in 1970.
The education sector
is one of the most important priorities in the UAE, for its role in the
development process and to raise the level of economic and social life of its
citizens, education in the past ten years has achieved significant progress in
terms of diversity of curriculum, teaching methods and learning styles that
control quantity and quality, this has been accompanied by a significant growth
in the numbers of students, academic and administrative staff and the increase
in spending. As a report by the "Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation"
and its strategic partner the “United Nations Development Program” also
stressed the decrease in literacy rate
in the UAE from (27.7%) in 1985 to (10%) in 2010, an average decline of
(17.7%),reaching to less than (1%) in 2013, thanks to the efforts of the leadership in spreading
education.
The UAE “Cabinet of Ministers” approved a law for the
Federal Government's budget for the fiscal year 2014, with total appropriations
of (46.2) billion Dirhams, and the education sector topped the list of social
development projects with allocations for public and higher education programs allocated
(9.8) billion Dirhams, representing (21%) of the total budget. The UAE has also
become a global center for higher education, having attracted the finest
universities in the “United State” and “Europe” to open accredited branches in
the State, and the “Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research” under
the guidance of his Excellency Sheikh “Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan” seeks to
give higher education institutions by providing them with continuous, strong
support and complete care, as it is supplying qualified graduates from various
disciplines to meet the requirements and needs of the labor market from all
technical disciplines, the State has more than (80) Universities and Colleges accommodating
more than (110 000) students studying (780) academic and research programs.
Education is the biggest concern of the State, so it is implementing
future plans for educational development for the next (20) years, working on Emiratisation
of education, so that the proportion of citizens working in education to reach
(90%) by 2020, considering that literacy is a starting point toward higher
education, valuable opportunities, personal development and social success by
linking education with competitive knowledge economy and its output to the
needs of the labor market, and to provide children with access to basic
education, ensuring their access to the basic skills needed to take the first
steps towards independence, and from here the Government of the UAE started
implementation of strategies in education, higher education and scientific
research, to maintain the quality of education, its output and competitiveness.
08/01/2014