JEDDAH — There are a total of 76,459 illiterate Saudi men and women who have worked for the government for more than 15 years, a government report said. The report said the number of the illiterate men came down from 97,070 in 2012 to 69,961 in 2013 while the number of illiterate women went up from 5,791 in 2012 to 6,498 the following year. The report said the number of Saudi employees in various sectors with various educational qualifications stood at 47,17,127 between the years 2012 an 2013 while the number of men working with secondary school certificates was 13,09,916 in 2012. According to the report, the number of men working with secondary school certificates or their equivalent increased to 14,89,291 in 2013. The report said the number of women working with secondary school certificates stood at 79,515 in 2013 with an increase of 4,000 women over the previous year. The men who worked for more than 15 years with university degrees were 848,343 in 2012 which went up to 922,485 in 2013 while women working with the same qualifications were 413,797 in 2012 but went up to 477,468 the next year. According to the report, men with PhD degrees who worked for the government for 15 years or more were 20,171 in 2012 which increased to 29,142 in 2013. The women with PhDs were 7,416 in 2012 but they decreased to 4,465 in 2013. Nasser Al-Ghifari, an economist, said the present position of the employment scale from the the aspect of education and service years is considered reasonable but it will not be acceptable in the coming years. "Educational certificates will not be the sole prerequisites for employment in the years to come but there should be rigorous training and rehabilitation," he said. Ghifari said the Hafiz indicator has revealed that the majority of Saudi men and women looking for jobs were holders of the secondary school certificates. He blamed the educational systems for this because they did not direct the students to the correct specializations and fields of study.
