[Tolo News] The Ministry of Defence denied reports based on the 47 percent of soldiers fleeing military services and that only 14 to 18 percent of Afghan Security Forces are literateOnly 15 percent of the Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers had left the army for different reasons in the past 11 months, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence, Gen. Zahir Azimi, told TOLOnews reporter denying a report recently published by the New York Times on the flee of more than 47 percent of ANA soldiers.
"The number of soldiers change during war and peace," Azimi added.
Meanwhile Mr. Azimi denied reports claiming that 14 to 18 percent of Afghan security forces are literate, and added that 68,000 of the 136,000 Afghan troops can read and write.
Of the 136,000 ANA forces, 4,200 are undergraduates, more than 27,000 are officers, more than 36,000 are soldiers and around 550 of them have been graduated from literacy courses, Azimi added.
In total, 28730 Afghan soldiers are doing literacy courses, Azimi said.
"While 100,000 out of 136,000 troops are literate or learning at courses, the claim that 14 to 18 percent of our soldiers are literate is totally incorrect," he explained.
Currently, the number of Afghan National Army troops is more than 130,000.
Illiteracy has always been an issue among Afghan security forces with the highest rates in Afghan National Police.
Before, foreign commanders in charge of Afghan forces training had said a huge level of addiction among soldiers reduces their capability of understanding.