470,000 illiterates exist in north-west Iran province – official

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 30 – A senior official in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan has acknowledged the existence of a staggeringly-high number of illiterate people in the province. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 30 – A senior official in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan has acknowledged the existence of a staggeringly-high number of illiterate people in the province.

Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in East Azerbaijan, announced that there existed close to half a million illiterate people in the province.

“The existence of 470,000 illiterates in the province is extremely shameful”, Shabestari told a group of educational officials. His remarks were reported on Thursday by the government-run news agency Fars.