Illiteracy rates among Palestinians aged 15 years and above fell from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 2.8 percent in 2018, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said.

In a report issued yesterday to mark International Literacy Day, the PCBS said illiteracy among men fell from 7.8 percent in 1997 to 1.3 percent in 2018, while for females it fell from 20.3 percent to 4.3 percent.

#Palestine is marking the international literacy day by being the highest literacy rate!#Palplus pic.twitter.com/nvoa4ncXbQ — Pal+ English (@palplusenglish) September 12, 2018

The rate fell from 14.1 percent in 1997 to three percent in 2018 in the occupied West Bank while in the besieged Gaza Strip it dropped from 13.7 percent in 1997 to 2.4 percent during the same period.

Illiteracy, according to the UNESCO definition, is when a person does not know to write and read a simple sentence about his or her daily life.

(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)