Literacy corps Iran's gamble to conquer illiteracy

Summary TheLiteracy Corps program was launched by Iranian government officials in October 1962 as a radical departure from both traditional and modern approaches to illiteracy among rural children. The program has been rapidly formulated and implemented in the midst of many public statements by government officials. As the program has evolved from formulation, to training, to implementation, this observer has grown increasingly skeptical. As a plan it has been hastily conceived and poorly financed. The military flavor that has been maintained in both selecting and training the teachers seems quite useless to, if not destructive of, an effective educational program. The consistent failure to relate the literacy program to an over-all program of teacher training and elementary school development marks Iran'sLiteracy Corps as a stop-gap measure rather than a bold, basic attack on the country's problem of educational opportunity for all its people.

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Literacy corps — Irans Wagnis im Feldzug gegen das Analphabetentum

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Literacy corps — l'aventure de l'Iran dans sa campagne contre l'analphabetisme

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Data for this analytical report were gathered by the author while in Iran as a Fulbright Professor at The University of Tehran, 1962–63.