[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English,
[00:06.95]this is the Education Report.
[00:09.45]A United Nations agency estimates
[00:13.29]that 516 million of the world's women
[00:17.24]can not read and write.
[00:19.11]The U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization --
[00:24.58]UNESCO says programs are needed
[00:28.14]to help illiterate women learn,
[00:30.51]although they are passed school age.
[00:33.61]Women make up two-thirds of all illiterate adults.
[00:38.73]The majority of these women live in West Africa,
[00:43.33]many girls in that area never go to school.
[00:47.88]But in Liberia, a new education program
[00:52.53]is giving women in their 30s, 40s and 50s
[00:57.43]another chance to learn to read and write.
[01:01.21]Pauline Rose heads UNESCO's worldwide monitoring report
[01:07.74]on Education for All,
[01:09.88]she says being illiterate causes
[01:14.62]huge problems in daily life.
[01:17.14]She notes situations like
[01:20.59]not being able to read directions
[01:23.12]on a medicine bottle, or the number on a bus.
[01:27.16]"So there are real practical concerns about
[01:30.25]when women are illiterate."
[01:31.94]Miss Rose says illiterate affects not only the women
[01:36.50]but also their families,
[01:38.39]because women are often the main caregivers of children.
[01:43.33]She says when women are illiterate,
[01:47.22]they are less likely to use health services.
[01:51.30]Some countries, like Senegal,
[01:54.55]have improved women's literacy rates
[01:57.54]through government efforts.
[01:59.23]They tell more girls in primary school
[02:02.72]and community programs about the importance of education.
[02:08.05]But there are still many nations
[02:11.44]where less than one in four women
[02:14.59]can read and write.
[02:16.43]They include Niger, Benin, Mali and Burkina Faso.
[02:22.71]Miss Rose says these countries need
[02:26.49]literacy programs that target women.
[02:29.44]She says there is a huge need for
[02:33.55]illiterate young women and adults
[02:35.84]to have a second-chance to read and write.
[02:39.93]Liberia for example,
[02:42.50]has launched a second-chance literacy campaign to teach women.
[02:47.39]The students never went to school,
[02:50.54]or they were forced to leave school
[02:54.02]because of ten years of civil war in the country.
[02:58.26]Lonee Smith is 35 years old,
[03:02.41]she is a student at the adult literacy school
[03:06.36]at the Firestone Liberia Natural Rubber Company
[03:10.84]in Margibi County.
[03:12.68]Her parents did not sent her to school,
[03:16.17]and she could not read or write.
[03:19.05]Now she is in the first grade and has those skills.
[03:23.79]She sells her goods at the market
[03:27.07]and can now count her profit without help.
[03:30.68]She says having a second chance at education
[03:35.01]has changed her life.
[03:37.15]"Today, I am a happy woman. I'm very proud."
[03:40.79]Liberia's Ministry of Education says
[03:43.73]5,000 women currently study in adult literacy programs
[03:49.11]across the country.
[03:50.75]And that's the Education Report.