Many students can't read the Koran

BENGKULU, Bengkulu: At least seven out of 10 Moslem elementary school students here don't know how to read the Koran, an official lamented.

Head of the municipal office of the Ministry of Education and Culture Amri Tafsili was quoted by Antara as saying yesterday that his office has decided to fight this "Koran illiteracy" by holding special Koran reading classes after school hours.

The city of Bengkulu now has 88 state-run primary schools with a total of 29,000 students, 12,000 of whom have registered to take the course.

The city's population is 180,000.

Hopefully all students will be able to read the Holy Book in the next few years, he said.

"If necessary, within the next six years, we'll make Koranic reading compulsory for students graduating from primary school," he said. (swe)