Abimbola Akosile
16 September 2008
Lagos — The Federal Government and other levels of government in the country, have been called upon to invest in adult literacy, as a boon to skills acquisition and rapid development.
The call was made by ActionAid Nigeria, an international non governmental anti-poverty agency, which noted with dismay the total neglect of adult literacy programmes by different levels of government in Nigeria.
In a statement marking this year's International Literacy Day, the organisation's Education Programme Advisor, Ms. Azuka Menkiti, expressed concern over the inability of government to take concrete action towards addressing the low literacy level of Nigerian adults.
September 8, every year is globally observed as the International literacy Day by the United Nations. This is to create the desired political awareness on the level of illiteracy all over the world.
According to Menkiti, who also doubles as focal person for Mass Literacy in Actionaid, "it is unfortunate that government is not taking the delivery of adult literacy very seriously in Nigeria. Both states and national government are not investing in adult literacy. All emphases are laid on formal education".
To her, "issues concerning adult literacy are ignored under the guise of Universal Basic Education which has no provision for adult literacy. They have failed to recognise that more than 30 per cent of Nigerians wallow in illiteracy and these group of people have a right to access education".
Menkiti, in the statement issued by ActionAid's media officer, Mr. Tunde Aremu, said it is also important to remind policy makers that the Education For All (EFA) agenda is incomplete without adult literacy
"Nigeria therefore joins other nations in this celebration to remind our leaders of the pledge Nigeria made as a nation to commit to halving the illiterate adult population by 2015", she said.
According to the UNDP Human development Report of 2007 /2008, Nigeria sill rates very low in human development assessment.
The report states that 69.1 per cent adult Nigerians are illiterate. ActionAid said it is unfortunate that government of different levels have neglected adult literacy and non formal education.
The theme of this year's celebration; 'Literacy is The Best Remedy' is a call on various levels of government to recognise the key role of literacy in combating the ills suffered in the area of health; interpretation of instructions on usage of drugs, child mortality rate, HIV-AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, break of traffic rules leading to loss of lives, and other civic rules and regulations.
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