18 November 2008
Lagos — President Umaru Musa Yar'adua has approved the extension of the Literacy by Radio project of the National Commission for MassLiteracy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC) to all the states and the Federal Capital Territory.
President Yar'adua who announced the approval in Owerri, Imo State on Monday said the remarkable success recorded in the implementation of the project in the initial 12 pilot states made it imperative to make other states enjoy its benefits.
Speaking at the opening of an advocacy and technical consultation workshop for stakeholders from the South East and South South States, the President, who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Hajiya Aishatu Jibril Dukku, expressed delight that the project had become the flagship for the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), UNESCO's global strategic agenda for the implementation of the UN Literacy Decade in the 35 countries including Nigeria with less than 50 percent literacy rate.
He said upgrading the project in Nigeria was part of the efforts at fast tracking the realisation of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals in the country.
He noted that in the course of running the project in the 12 pilot states, it had gone through some critical stages including a baseline survey to inform the development of the project, development of learners' primers in 10 local languages and the training of no fewer than 250 Nigerians to execute the project at various levels.
Noting that the project taught literacy skills in agriculture, health, HIV/AIDS, civic education and life skills, President Yar'adua expressed satisfaction that other initiatives such as entrepreneurship had been factored into its implementation in some states.
He urged partners to consider the project as a national duty in the interest of the country's development.
Hajiya Dukku presented cheques of N2.1 million to each state Commissioner for Education and N1.5 million to the FCT, which she said was a sign of Federal Government's commitment to the project but warned that its sustenance would depend on the readiness of states and the local governments to take rightful ownership of it.
In an address, the Executive Secretary of NMEC, Dr Dayo Olagunju explained
that the workshop was organised to elicit vital information from stakeholders for literacy projects in the country. He said similar workshops had been held in Kano for North East and North West states and in Akure for South West and North Central States.
Apart from eliciting information, Olagunju said the workshop was also aimed at raising awareness on Nigeria's literacy status as well as to share experience with stakeholders on plans and projects designed to improve the nation's literacy profile.
By signing the memorandum of understanding under which the disbursements were made, the NMEC chief executive said the benefiting states had committed themselves to the success and sustenance of the project.
He said the money disbursed to the states for the project came from the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals which in turn sourced it from the nation's debt relief savings.
He directed that the money should be used for the production of lesson programmes and to support state radio stations for broadcasting, support state technical committees for project planning, management and monitoring, support to project facilitators and to support state agencies for mass education to enable them collect the materials allocated to them.
Dr Olagunju promised that as soon as the states confirm collection of their materials, government through his commission would facilitate the necessary training and advised that learners should be ready to take lessons in all the states and the FCT early next year.
Earlier in an address of welcome, Imo State governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim said the workshop could not have come at a better time than now when he said all hands were needed on deck to ensure that the provision of adult and non-formal education complemented the efforts of the formal school system in the bid to eradicate illiteracy in the country.
Ohakim, who was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Comfort Chukwu said it was important that all levels of government be sensitized enough to enable them know their responsibilities particularly in the delivery of adult and non-formal education.
To achieve Education for All and the MDGs, he said the non-formal education sector deserved equal emphasis as is given to formal school system adding that the nation's educational policies needed to be more pragmatic and more vocational in orientation, with emphasis on empowering the learners to be able to fend for themselves.
To underscore the importance the state government attached to non-formal education, he said his administration on assuming office in 2007 embarked on the construction of permanent classroom blocks for adult and non-formal education in the state while ensuring that the non-formal education sector enjoyed adequate budgetary provisions.
Chief Ohakim enjoined the relevant authorities to give special attention to Imo as an educationally disadvantaged state because of its problem of high male school drop out rate which he said was occasioned by the quest for quick material wealth.
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