Journal of Educational Sciences > Volume 2, No. 2, 1990

Student Attitudes Toward Erradication of Illiteracy Programs in Saudi Arabia / Abdul Rahman S. Al-Hamidi

The government of Saudi Arabia spends a lot of effort for giving a chance to learn and eradication of illiteracy to all citizens. However, these efforts are thwarted by non- participation and drop-out. This study is an attempt to evaluate student attitudes toward programs for eradication of illiteracy in Saudi Arabia.
The goals of the study are to understand: the benefits of the programs from the student's viewpoint; the amenability of the facilities from the student’s viewpoint; the problems encountered by students while enrolled in the program; the similarities and differences between males and females for all of the foregoing factors.
The following hypotheses were developed to these ends: from the student’s viewpoint the present eradication of illiteracy programs are not beneficial; from the student’s viewpoint the facilities are not adequate; from the student‘s viewpoint they face educational and non-educational problems while enrolled in eradication of illiteracy programs.
Method: The sample consisted of 891 male and 695 female randomly selected students enrolled in eradication of illiteracy programs. The instrument consisted of a 22 item closed question questionnaire. Phi coefficient and percentage of favorable and unfavorable responses were the method of analysis.
Results: 
1. Hypothesis number one:
69.5 percent of the students agreed - hypothesis accepted
2. Hypothesis number two:
73.9 percent. of the students agreed - hypothesis accepted
3. Hypothesis number three:
69.4 percent of the students agreed - hypothesis accepted.
4. Statistically significant differences between males and females , 0.05 and 0.01,  were found for the above hypotheses.
Recommendations were formulated which were focused on alleviating some of the problems as perceived by the students.