130,000 illiterate in Surabaya

SURABAYA: At least 130,000 residents of the East Java capital of Surabaya are illiterate, chairman of the City's Development Planning Board Biempi Harbimaharani said here on Tuesday.

Speaking in a one-day seminar on development planning, Biempi said that the illiterate were among 218,650 residents who had never participated in any kind of formal education.

Without revealing the average age of illiterate people, he claimed that the prolonged economic crisis had contributed to the unfavorable situation.

"Surabaya now has a total of 2.5 million permanent residents, and one million seasonal residents. Illiteracy is a very serious problem to be dealt with. Surabaya is the second largest city in the country," he said.

"Only 289,360 out of the 2.5 million permanent residents were university graduates," he said, adding that the city had a total of 853,838 high school graduates and 617,590 junior high school graduates. (nur/sur)