Google Takes On Arabic Literacy Gap With Reading App

Do you remember learning how to read? For most of us, it’s a skill we take for granted—but for children of illiterate adults, mastering reading can be incredibly difficult, even with teacher assistance.

Help is at hand, though, thanks to Google’s free-to-use Read Along app, which this month added Arabic to its language capabilities.

Such support is much needed in the Arab world, where one in five adults are unable to read and academics warn that illiteracy is again on the rise having fallen from 85 percent in 1950. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated these challenges, with 40 percent of schoolchildren—that’s 37 million kids—in the Middle East and North Africa unable to access remote learning, according to UNICEF.……..………………………………………………………..