Archipelago – The high rate of illiteracy in Papua's two provinces has stalled development programs in the region, an official has said.

The head of Papua's Family Welfare and People's Empowerment Agency, Donatus Mote, said on Tuesday that the region's medium-term development plan had faced difficulties caused by illiteracy among local officials.

This had led to the failure of many districts to submit their budget plans in relation to development programs, he said.

Of 4,788 villages in Papua, he said, only 14 villages had submitted their budget plans and were ready to start the government's development programs.

"Those villages are all located in Jayapura," Donatus said as quoted by tempo.co.

The latest data from the Education Ministry showed that Papua accounted for 36.31 percent of the nation's illiterates, with 3.6 million people in 2013, the highest in the country.

To tackle the problem, Donatus said his agency had deployed 1,000 assistants to every district in Papua to help local officials compose their budgets.

Papuan legislator Tan Wei Long Karnan, meanwhile, has recommended that local officials must be, at a minimum, graduates of junior high school (SMP), as they are responsible for the distribution of a local budget worth up to Rp 3 billion (US$224,711) per year. (ika)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/30/low-literacy-rates-hamper-papua-development.html