rights to education. The Ministry of Education in collaborations with the local administrations, civic organizations, religious leaders and parents committees continue to sensitize the communities and significant transformation is taking place. Local assemblies and administrations have also introduced strong measures to enforce the right of girls to education. Incentives are also introduced to support needy families who make sacrifice to send their daughters to school. In some targeted areas, the government has established boarding schools to ensure reliable opportunities, in particular for girls, to continue their education all the way up to the secondary school level. Adult literacy as a condition for Continuity and Empowerment 176. Eritrea believes education is a lifelong process. A fundamental issue is the eradication of illiteracy in the society. The literacy programme started in 1994 on the basis of programmes and experiences of the liberation struggle under the EPLF. The experience is broad and encompasses the eradication of illiteracy from the liberations struggle fighters of the EPLF during 1972 and the literacy and adult education campaigns launched in the liberated areas of the EPLF during 1983 – 1991. The mother tongue education as a policy was also applied during this time both in the adult literacy and education programmes. 177. Illiteracy has been the main obstacle, to development and the technical revolution in agriculture and social life. The literacy adult education programme was introduced in a small scale as a pilot during 1994 – 1999 and 52,360 adults (87.72% being women) participated. The mother tongue policy is also implemented in the Adult Literacy Programme. In the last 16 years consecutive three five year strategic plans have been implemented to fulfill the rights of citizens to literacy. During this period about 1,000,000 (88.13% are females) participated in the programme with 80% completion rate. The yearly average level of participation is estimated at about 62,500 participants and is part of the three year adult literacy programme. In many places those who finished their study have been able to get employment in the local enterprises of their villages. 178. Evening classes are also functioning mostly in urban areas. It is an area that has not been utilized significantly bearing in mind the enormous expansion and coverage of education and social facilities throughout the country. In 2015/16 the number increased and 4, 088 students enrolled at elementary, middle and secondary levels in all regions. About 2, 648 (74.6%) completed their education and 1,044 (25.54%) dropped out. Enrolment has also expanded in particular to Northern Red Sea, Gash Barka and Southern regions. The significant development is that this programme has presently expanded to semi urban areas (example Afabet, Maymene and Maydema). The easy access of participants‟ to the National Secondary Education Certificate Examination in their local areas is also a motivation to continue education while productive at work. The efficiency and effectiveness is, however, influenced by the low level of enrolment (teacher student ratio is 1:13). Hence, maximizing the utilization of the resources remains an important task. Page 40 of 100