The European Union (EU) signed a funding convention with Morocco on Monday here to grant Morocco 17million euros (about 23.8 million U.S. dollars )to support the country's literacy program, Morocco's state MAP news agency reported.
The convention aims to reduce illiteracy by three percent a year, and to improve the quality and boost the efficiency of the government's literacy programs, the report said.
The grant will be used to reinforce the orientation and follow-up capacities of the north African kingdom in the field, and to support the NGOs by improving their intervention capacity and the quality of the training.
The funds will also serve to improve the life quality and the economic participation of the target population, namely illiterate people aged between 16-35.
Noting that illiteracy undermines civic responsibility and the fight against poverty, illness and exclusion, EU representative in Morocco, Bruno Dethomas said the EU strongly supports the civil society, especially the NGO endeavor, to fight against illiteracy.
Though government figures set the illiteracy rate at 43 percent, press reports and unofficial statistics say the rate is more than 60 percent.
In 2002, the government launched a broad literacy program through which it hopes to bring illiteracy under 20 percent by 2012. (1 Euro = 1.42 Dollar)
Source:Xinhua
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