Prof. Dr. Ghada Farouk, Acting Vice President for Community Service and Environmental Development, participated in the celebration organized by the General Authority for Adult Education headed by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nassef, Chairman of the Commission, on the occasion of the International Literacy Day, which carried the slogan (Transformations in the learning spaces of reading and writing), through a discussion session entitled (Challenges and how to overcome them), with the participation of Prof. Dr. Iman Haridi, Dean of the Faculty of of Education, Cairo University, Prof. Dr. Khaled Irfan, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Al-Azhar University, Prof. Dr. Islam Al-Saeed, Director of the Adult Education Center at Ain Shams University, and Prof. Dr. Ahmed Abdel Rashid, general coordinator of the literacy project at Helwan University.

Her Excellency reviewed the achievements of Ain Shams University in the field of literacy during the period from 2019 to 2022, with the participation of university students in all governorates, villages and cities of the republic, where the total number of people emancipated from illiteracy reached 47,615 at the end of last April, noting that the community service and environmental development sector in universities, The main active role that is reflected in all university activities and practices; In view of the diversity and multiplicity of its activities, especially in the field of literacy, which the sector pays great attention to through its units of a special nature, especially the adult education center of the sector, in addition to the procedures and practices taken by the community service and environmental development sector in its plans, programs and awareness campaigns, and in light of this, it has contributed The sector has taken several measures to contribute to the community in the national project to eradicate illiteracy, whether in terms of regulations and legislation, administrative procedures or community activities and participation, through several decisions issued by the University Council, which is represented in the University Council Resolution No. (36) in December 2019: In which the project was presented to the presidency of the university council, which resulted in the approval of “the students of the faculties of “Education - Specific Education - Girls Division of Education - Arts - Law - Commerce - Alsun” to eradicate the illiteracy of (4) successful learners for each student as a prerequisite for obtaining Graduation Certificate”, which is a positive step to invest the energies of this human force to participate in the project, and the two faculties of Agriculture and Archeology were added, in addition to University Council Resolution No. (13) in February 2020 granting each student Four people eradicate illiteracy, with an incentive of (250) pounds for each mother provided by the Adult Education Authority, in addition to an amount of (50) pounds provided by the university for each successful mother, which confirms the university’s keenness to distinguish it from other universities and its support for incentives other than the incentives provided. From the General Authority for Adult Education, in order to motivate students and support the national project to eradicate illiteracy, in addition to the university bearing and paying the tuition fees on behalf of the student who eradicates the illiteracy of more than four people for the following school year for his act of eradicating illiteracy as an additional incentive for him.

The university also established units for adult education, and as a result, a unit for adult education was established, and a headquarters in each of the university’s colleges, who were subject to the decision to oblige to follow up the progress of the project under the supervision of the adult education center at the university.

She also referred to the qualification of university students to work in literacy, as the University's Adult Education Center held training courses for university students participating in the project to train them on adult education methods and methods, and held training courses for workers in the field of literacy in cooperation with the General Authority for Adult Education.

Her Excellency touched on the role of comprehensive development convoys to bring university services to society, especially the most needy areas. It is also considered an effective development work in empowering marginalized and disadvantaged groups. Through the provision of various educational, medical and development services, the university sector has been keen to serve the community and develop the environment in its main plans and programs that the illiteracy eradication project has a major focus and an important role in all its comprehensive development convoys, as the comprehensive development convoys include four main axes; The medical axis, the social axis, the illiteracy axis, and finally the cultural axis, where coordination is carried out between the Adult Education Center and the Adult Education Authority in the illiteracy eradication axis by providing specialized seminars, holding exams and registering data for students wishing to enroll in literacy classes with the participation of students of the various colleges of the university.

In the conclusion of her speech, Prof. Dr. Ghada Farouk said that as a result of these achievements, UNESCO announced that Ain Shams University won the Confucius Prize for the year 2021; The jury praised the university’s role in organizing online literacy classes for rural and poor areas in the Arab Republic of Egypt, by providing training programs to prepare university students to work as literacy teachers in communities, as well as using distance learning tools to teach digital skills, communication skills and adult education.

Demanding the need to unite efforts to make a group image to eradicate illiteracy to overcome the difficulties and challenges facing illiteracy, as well as analyze the challenges. All universities in Egypt should unite to eliminate illiteracy.

Prof. Dr. Islam Al-Saeed, Director of the Adult Education Center at the university, said that courses were held to qualify university students to work as a literacy facilitator under the title "Preparing the Adult Teacher" in both direct and online systems.

He pointed out that care was taken to diversify the course topics to cover the main themes, namely: the concept of adult education - the difference between adult education and young adult education - characteristics of adult learners - methods of attracting illiterates to literacy classes - methods of teaching reading, writing and arithmetic skills - procedures for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic for adults.

As a result of these achievements, Ain Shams University won first place at the level of universities in the two sessions of October 2020 and January 2021, and also won first place at the university level for the year 2020/2021, in addition, the university has achieved the highest rate of development in the literacy project during the last two years According to the meeting of the Supreme Council for Community Service and Environmental Development, Assiut University, February 20, 2022.

He explained that we have many students who participated in eradicating the illiteracy of illiterate individuals more than once during the year, which called on the university to hold a competition to honor the most accomplished students, calling for an institution to prepare a teacher for adult education to speed up the declaration of a literacy-free Egypt by 2030, in addition to The importance of following up on the literate and motivating the illiteracy recipients.