Curbing the growth of illiteracy

During the 2013 International Literacy Day held recently, the minister of state for Education Nyesom Wike revealed that the number of adult illiterates, those who can hardly read or write, have increased from a figure of 25 million in 1997 to 35 million in 2013. He also referred to the notorious fact that over 10 million Nigerian children are out of school.

It is worrisome that if nothing strategic and sustainable is done about the current huge number of out of school children aside from the usual fanfare campaigns of governments, this will be a ready pool for growth in adult literacy in the near future. Thus, it is not surprising that the current Education for All, Global Monitoring report classified Nigeria as one of the countries in the world with the highest level of illiteracy.

Development experiences of countries that have remarkably transited remarkable from pre-industrial to industrial phases of economic development or that have experienced significant industrial take-off reveal that one recurrent pre-condition for this quantum economic leap has always been a high level of basic literacy across all strata of the population. The examples of Japan and China in the last century are legendary lessons.

We believe, and rightly too, that increasing the average literacy skills across segments of the population has a greater positive impact on economic growth than increasing the percentage of individuals that achieve high levels of literacy skills. The latter seem to the norm in our clime. So much resource is being committed to tertiary education for only a few, neglecting the need to spread literacy across the population towards empowering all to take their rightful place in society and enhance the quality of citizenship and ultimately that of governance.

The preponderance of many adult artisans and traders who cannot read and write or reason logically is a disincentive to productivity and economic growth. With a staggering illiteracy rate in our society, it is no wonder that there is a high number of Nigerians who hold no bank accounts, thus one major reason for the huge funds outside the formal banking system with attendant negative impact on monetary policy implementation and economic management.

It must be emphasized that Nigeria cannot achieve a desired and sustainable economic growth with a citizenry that is considerably on the borderline of literacy. Beyond the cheap talk by public officials, it is imperative that governments at all levels devise workable plans towards achieving a high literacy level.

If they really appreciate their responsibilities, the several local governments across the country should be in the fore front of the campaign and activity of curbing the growth of adult illiteracy. All relevant agencies of government at federal and state levels should reach out to these local governments and collaborate meaningfully and strategically with them towards improving adult literacy across the population.

We urge the federal ministry of Education to rise above cheap pronouncement and declarations and focus on launching and implementing a functional literacy campaign. We believe that if this is pursued sustainably and with the appropriate involvement of local governments and the recruitment of services of non-governmental organisations, this embarrassing growth of illiteracy will be curbed in no distant time.