UAE literacy rate improves

As the world marks International Literacy Day today under the theme "Literacy as Freedom", latest Unesco figures reveal that 877 million adults and 113 million children did not attend school in 2000.

Most of the illiterate population - 68 per cent - is in East and South Asia, with females accounting for two-thirds of all illiterate adults.

In the Arab world, the illiteracy rate is 38 per cent. The illiteracy rate for Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean are 37 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, according to Unesco.