Burundi to reduce illiteracy from 57% to 30%

BUJUMBURA - Burundi plans to reduce the illiteracy rate up from 57 percent to 30 percent by 2015, the East African country's minister in charge of literacy said on Thursday.

The plan was unveiled on the eve of the celebration of the international literacy day set on Sept 8.

"To reduce the illiteracy rate, Burundi has drafted a large scale project worth 3 billion Burundi francs (about $2 million) and the project will start in July 2013," said Burundian Primary and Secondary Education and Literacy Minister Severin Buzingo.

The minister said, "The large scale project aims to seriously reduce the national current illiteracy rate from 57 to 30 percent by 2015."

Buzingo said the country has "required human resources" which will contribute to the fall of the country's illiteracy rate, the highest in the East African region.