Nigeria seeks UNESCO’s input in literacy campaign
By
Jun 13, 2008, 15:52

Nigeria would welcome any assistance from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in promoting literacy and especially in realising its goal of Education for All.

Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Turai Umar Yar’Adua made this call when she visited UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France on Thursday June 12 2008.

Mrs Turai stressed that adult illiteracy poses a challenge in Nigeria as in other African and developing countries.

She referred to the Global Monitoring Report of the 7th E-9 Ministerial Review Conference held in Bali, Indonesia last March, which suggested that Nigeria was among the countries that may not achieve the EFA goals by year 2015.

“You will therefore understand why Nigeria requests an enhanced commitment of UNESCO to adult literacy efforts in the country. It is of course true that we have made considerable progress in the field but, until every illiterate is served we shall continue to invite UNESCO to support our efforts”.

The First Lady also drew the attention of UNESCO to the area of women and youth literacy, and expressed hope that those two target populations were among the priority areas of UNESCO.

Mrs. Yar’adua explained the objectives of her Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF) which include girl-child education, which is one of the issues central to the achievements of EFA goals.

The First Lady expressed determination to move into partnership with the Organisation in moving its work forward and in joining hands with it to cover the broader regions of Africa.

The Deputy Director of UNESCO, Mr. Marcio Barbosa said youth and women are very important to UNESCO, he further revealed that NGOs are great partners of UNESCO, the organization has contact with over 300 NGO, but NGOs from African and Arabian countries need to participate more. He said UNESCO will identify mechanism in advancement of WAYEF.

Minister of State Education, Mrs Aisha Jibril Dukku posited that 49 per cent of adult population in Nigeria is illiterate with more than half of this category being women.

Mrs. Dukku said government cannot do it alone and that the intervention of WAYEF is most welcomed. She praised UNESCO as the key resource in advancing literacy rate in
Nigeria.

The Nigerian Ambassador to UNESCO, Prof. Michael Omolewa expressed gratitude for the initiative put forward by the Nigerian First Lady.

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