The Effect of Illiteracy on Rural Development in Jeldu District, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia’s population is predominantly a rural population and most of them are illiterate, illiteracy has brought complicated challenges and seriously affects rural development and limited the capacity of rural communities even from participating in opportunities that could bring personal development. This thesis attempts to examine the effect of illiteracy on rural development in Oromiya Regional State of Ethiopia, Jeldu district. To address the objective both representative samples were selected from five peasant associations namely, Tatessa,, Qoftu, Sarity, Dano and Bicho Dagali using random sampling technique 75 household were selected using an interval of 10 ie. 10, 20, etc. Illiteracy is the main cause of low rural development and livelihood condition in rural areas. Illiterate rural community has a low participation in development. Limited agricultural production was the reflection of illiteracy that has left the farming community with traditional farming system. To tackle these challenges this research recommends among others, to increase the coverage of adult functional education by devising appropriate and attractive incentives to the illiterate farmers. Introduce integrated development approach in the district. The district administration needs to devise a new mechanism to increase the awareness of the community on natural resource conservation and increase the participation of farmers in initiatives.