Prof. Abba Haladu, the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC), says lack of political will had been a challenge in eradicating illiteracy in the country.
Haladu said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the occasion of International Literacy Day in Abuja on Thursday.
He called on stakeholders to redouble their efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4, aimed at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
The Executive Secretary said that the illiteracy rate in the country was at 38 per cent and the literacy rate was at 62 per cent.
‘’Why after this long period of time, we are still saying that 50 to 60 million youth and adults in Nigeria are illiterate is that 11. 4 million out of school children, gender parity has not yet been achieved.
“It is quite a worrisome issue.
“In my own opinion all these years we have only been talking about the issue of eradicating illiteracy but without putting into practice what we say.
“To eradicate illiteracy requires a lot of things. The paramount of which is the political will.
“That is to say from the highest authority in the country they are determined, for example, the President, Members of the House of Assembly, the Ministers, the Governors and then take it down to the learner.
“Everybody has to have the will to say illiteracy is a problem and we are going to eradicate it.
“Unfortunately in the past this has not happened. The efforts are really not strong enough the political will was not actually there.”
He said that another major challenge in eradicating illiteracy in the country was poor funding; saying that to eradicate literacy requires a lot of finance.
Haladu said funds were needed to recruit teachers, get materials, get the curriculum and mobilise learners and stakeholders.
He stated that Nigerians had not been fully mobilised to be their brother’s keepers in the aspect of literacy.
According to him, if you cannot teach someone literacy, pay someone to teach your brother or sister literacy.
The executive secretary said that learning apathy also accounted for the low level of literacy in the country, adding that the learners needed to be mobilised and sensitised on the importance of being literate.
“Some of these people you are targeting are consumed by issues such as poverty and they do not see the need to be literate.
“You can have programmes but you have to mobilise and sensitise the learners; to tell them the importance of education for their future development.”
He said that that the present administration was committed to ensuring that all the challenges to ensuring literacy in the country were tackled.
“The Minister of Education and the Minister of State for Education are highly committed to this sector and the government itself is highly committed and a lot will be done in the next coming three years,’’ he said.
NAN reports that this year marks the 50th anniversary of UNESCO’s celebration of the International Literacy Day.
The day is set aside to actively mobilise the international community and to promote literacy as an instrument to empower individuals, communities and societies. (NAN)
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