It is low-income families that are the cause of the rapidly rising illiteracy level among the representatives of younger generation in Azerbaijan, Trend Life reports, referring to Malakhat Murshudly, Chairperson of the Union of Independent Teachers of Azerbaijan.

“Children from low-income families have to leave school as seventh or eighth formers, and even as fifth formers, to help their parents,” she said. Murshudly pointed out that the tendency is mainly observed in rural areas, where boys have to find jobs, and girls help their mothers run the households.

Although such children constitute only 2% of all the schoolchildren in Azerbaijan, but their number is getting higher year by year. Murshudly also said that the illiteracy level in the country’s regions is much higher than in large cities, such as Baku, Sumgait, Gyanja.

The local educationist Rufat Aliyev believes that the literacy level is getting lower year by year. “Soldiers in our army cannot read and write. They ask their companions to write letters home for them,” Aliyev said.