China begins drive to reduce illiteracy

BEIJING, May 26 (UPI) -- The Chinese education ministry says it plans to reduce the number of illiterate adults in the country from 50 million to about 40 million by 2016.

"There are still 50 million illiterate people in China, most of whom live in remote and rural areas with poor transportation and telecommunications," a ministry official said.

The ministry has set a target of making about 2 million of them literate every year in the next five years, Xinhua reported.

The report said the country has already brought down the illiteracy rate to 4.08 percent in 2010 from 6.72 percent in 2000. In 1949, when Communist China was founded, a vast majority of the country's then population of 600 million were illiterate, the report said.

The new education ministry guidelines include teaching the adults how to read correctly, pronounce, write and use 592 of the most frequently used Chinese characters, basic arithmetic skills and tips for daily life. The government also plans to use video products for home study.

"In the next five years, we should take further actions to educate women, ethnic minorities and migrant workers," the official said.