Caritas Bangladesh to aid state literacy goals

(September 09, 2011) Caritas Bangladesh joined government officials on Thursday in endorsing the goal of total literacy in the country by 2014 during an event marking International Literacy Day in the capital, Dhaka. Afsarul Amin, primary and mass education minister, told a gathering of educators, government officials and NGO staff members at Osmani memorial auditorium that education was vital to the country’s development. Noting that literacy is also an integral part of achieving and maintaining peace, he thanked those NGOs who helped almost a hundred percent of children enrol in school this year. Shishir Rozario, education project coordinator for Caritas noted that the Catholic Church’s charity arm has been working to eradicate illiteracy since 1983 and currently they run 463 schools in various areas of the country that benefit almost 28,000 poor students. The state-run Non-Formal Education Bureau estimates that the country’s current literacy rate stands at 53 percent, with an estimated 37.3 million people qualifying as completely illiterate. Most Caritas schools are located in extremely poor and remote areas where government facilities have yet to reach.