Unesco reveals that 65m Nigerians are illiterate and lack the ability to read and write

AS many as 65m Nigerians are illiterate and lack the ability to read and write according to the finding of a new survey just published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

 

Revealed yesterday by Dr Mohammed Alkali, the national programme advisor on education, at Unesco's regional office in Abuja, the statistics confirm recent data showing Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world. In 2013, Unesco published a report showing that there are over 10m Nigerian children out of school, making the country the worst affected country in the world.

 

In that report, Unesco showed that Nigeria topped the table of 12 countries surveyed with 10.5m school age children not in full time education. During a visit to Katsina State governor Aminu Masari yesterday, Dr Alkali said people could be lifted out of poverty if they were empowered with basic reading skills, adding that just nine months of literacy increases a person’s earning by up to 10%.

 

He, however, pointed out that the non-formal education sector had suffered from very low funding and urged political leaders to develop the political will to fulfil their mandates by recruiting and paying Unesco-trained facilitators. Dr Alkali also revealed that Unesco in collaboration with the National Mass Education Commission had embarked on a project to revitalise adult and youth literacy with the target of reducing Nigerian illiteracy rate by between 5m to 6m youths and adults.

 

Dr Alkali stated that the project was developed with strategic partnerships initiatives sharing responsibilities between Unesco, the federal government, states and local governments to achieve the target results. At a recent United Nations meeting in New York, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to eliminate illiteracy within 15 years.