Azerbaijan's First Lady delivered speech at UNESCO's conference in Qatar

"While there are a number of countries, who have benefited immensely from better education, there are still many others who are denied better education opportunities owing to unfavourable situations in their country," said Mehriban Aliyeva, the first lady of Azerbaijan.

Aliyeva, a Goodwill Ambassador of the UNESCO, pointed out that it was a matter of severe concern that more than 100mn children all over the world were not having any access to elementary education.

Expressing her deep concern for such unfortunate children, Aliyeva felt it was mainly the great disparity in wealth between haves and have nots that had contributed to the vast difference in literacy levels between better off countries and others.

Terming Qatar as perhaps the most dynamically developing nation not only in the region, but also in the world, Aliyeva said it was the its better educational reforms that contributed remarkably to Qatar's economic progress in recent years.

The Azerbaijan representative said it was heartening indeed to learn about the new experiments and innovations in Qatar's educational scenarios. "It is a matter of pride for the country that a number of new generation schools and foreign universities have started functioning in the country," she said.

Describing Qatar as the emerging centre of scientific and cultural activities of the Arab region, Aliyeva said she was hopeful that more centres of higher standards of learning would come up in Qatar in the next few years and the people stood to derive immense benefits from their arrival.

Recalling that the biggest handicap of her country in the last century was its low level of literacy, Aliyeva said Azerbaijan had overcome that stage many years ago and was now having 98% literacy. Gulf News