150,705 in NTT illiterate

MAUMERE, East Nusa Tenggara: Provincial education office chief Josua Cornelius Mebeo said over the weekend that 150,705 of the province's 3.6 million people were illiterate.

Josua said the government planned to run literacy programs for 32,000 people in the 1997/1998 fiscal year, to eradicate illiteracy.

The province's population is scattered throughout hundreds of islands making it difficult for the government to educate everyone, Josua said. (yac/01)