KABUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 million people in Afghanistan are illiterate, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Minister for Education Assadullah Hanif Balkhi.
"About 60 to 61 percent of the country's population is illiterate people," the Daily Etilaatroz quoted Balkhi as saying.
According to the paper, Balkhi termed high rate of illiteracy as the main factor for poverty and continued instability in the war-ravaged country and called on his countrymen to help the government in promoting literacy.
Although Afghanistan has been trying to promote the rate of literacy, continued militancy and fighting have undermined the program, the minister said.
More than 10.5 million Afghan children with some 40 percent of them girls are in school, even though hundreds of schools have been closed down due to ongoing insurgency and security threat in the country.
Nearly 2 million Afghan children dropped out school in the war-torn country annually, Sardar Mohammad Rahimi, a senior official with education ministry, has said.
Deprivation of education for children would add to the number of illiterate in Afghanistan, the official added.
