ANTANANARIVO, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Five million of people, or 31 percent of Madagascans between 11 and 15 years, are illiterates in rural areas of Madagascar in 2008, Minister of National Education Stangeline Ralambomanana said on Monday in Toamasina, a port city 380 kilometers northeast of the capital.

    Opening the ceremony of the World Literacy Day, which was marked on Monday in Toamasina with the theme "Literacy, the best cure", the Minister said that 37.1 percent of people over 15 years were illiterates in 2006 and 52 percent have already read and write.

    The Madagascan government has planned to increase the rate of literacy to 80 percent by 2012, through its Madagascar Action Plan, announced at the end of 2006, Les Nouvelles, a French-language daily quoted the Minister as saying on Tuesday.

    However, these 52 percent did not receive the training designed to meet the needs of basic education due to the lack of infrastructure facilities, coaching in non-formal schools and inadequate activities protection, alertness and preschool education.

    A program for the promotion of children basic education, with the theme : "Non-Formal Education, Support for Literacy," was developed to overcome the problem, Ms. Fanja Randrenalijaona, director of program to support literacy under the Ministry of National Education, told the media on Monday.

    The program was aimed at meeting the educational needs of children and adults, contributing to human resources development to promote the basic foundation of a country's sustainable development and improving socio-economic conditions of the country.

    Randrenalijaona said that preschool children, women and girls of school-age children or victims of school dropouts and disadvantaged groups living in areas of extreme poverty were the targets of the program.

    Three literacy methods, including "the school to support the Madagascan youth", "the world of alpha" and "functional literacy for intensive development", were applied since 2006 in Madagascar and led to good results.

    For the moment, only 20 percent has benefited the literacy methods but the Madagascan government has planned to reach 60 percent in four years, Randrenalijaona added.