Abu Dhabi Makes Major Strides in Eliminating Illiteracy

There has been a massive improvement in the level of literacy within the emirate of Abu Dhabi over the past four decades, according to statistics released by the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (SCAD).  Just prior to the foundation of the UAE the illiteracy rate stood at 75.12 percent but by 2011 this figure had been reduced to just 6 percent making Emiratis in the Capital among the most literate in the Arab World.  The average illiteracy rate throughout the Arab World stands at 27.3 percent, according to the agency.

SCAD also gave a breakdown in the number of schools along with pupil/teacher ratios in the Emirate.  ''The total number of schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for the school year 2010/2011 year was 480 (299 Government and 181 were private), comprising 13,528 classrooms, 306,497 pupils, 22,218 teachers and 8,055 administrators. The number of pupils per teacher was 13.8 and the number of pupils per classroom was 22.7,'' said SCAD