on Wednesday in Kano said that Nigeria has
about 60 million illiterate youths and adults.
Adamu, who was represented by Mr Prinzo
James, Deputy Director, Basic and Secondary
Education, Ministry of Education, said this at
the 2018 International Literacy Day
Celebration.
He said out of this figure, females
accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the
population, while a total of 11 million
children were out of school.
According to him, the increasing low level
of literacy skills achieved by the millions of
learners who completed some formal
school education, made the situation more
complicated.
Adamu said the present state of affairs
called for urgent attention as the country
strives to ensure the attainment of SDGs by
2030.
“With these unwholesome statistics in our
hands, it becomes evident that concerted
efforts are required in order to accelerate
the processes for combating illiteracy
among children, youths and adults.
“Therefore, every effort aimed at bringing
together multiple stakeholders should be
committed to advancing literacy and
lifelong learning, will receive support of the
ministry of education.
“The Ministerial Strategic Plan for education
sector has considered the importance of
youth and adult literacy and gave the sector
a prime position in the document.
“I would like to assure you that
preparations are underway by the Federal
Government to launch a National Mass
Literacy Campaign with a view to
addressing the high rate of youth and adult
illiteracy in the country,” he said.
The minister said that the theme of the
2018 Literacy Day “Literacy and Skills
Development ” was apt, as the global trend
was on skill development for youths and
adults.
He said literacy must be taken beyond the
cognitive domain to the critical level that
imbues the citizen with thinking skills and
functional literacy.
The UNESCO Representative, Mr Stephen
Onyekwelu, said UNESCO was impressed
with the passion the Kano state
government has shown in the area of
literacy and Non-Formal Education.
Onyekwelu said the new International skills
acquisition centre which has 22 different
skills, was a practical example of literacy
and skills acquisition.
He urged various states to take a cue from
what the Kano state government did in the
area of skills development.
Onyekwelu said the challenge of literacy
was not only in Nigeria but a global
problem.
He, however, said the challenge was with
the new wave of technology and how the
old people would be taught the 21st
century demands of technological
innovation.
He called for stakeholders support in the
fight against illiteracy, saying it was not just
the responsibility of the government.
Dr Garba Abari, Director-General, National
Orientation Agency (NOA), said literacy
could do much more in Nigeria than any
other message anyone could preach.
Represented by Mrs Metto Edekobi, Director
State Operations, he said that “to counter
insurgency, literacy must strive and
ignorance must die.”
Abari said the staff of the NOA were
available to support NMEC in all their
programmes, and that the agency would
partner NMEC to increase the level of
literacy.
He advocated for the introduction of civic
education in literacy centres, calling on
everyone to support the government and
NMEC by educating the illiterates in their
various communities.
NAN reports that the International
Literacy Day is celebrated on Sept. 8 every
year as declared by UNESCO.
This year marks the 52nd anniversary of
Literacy Day
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