Nigeria urged to join fight to eliminate illiteracy

World Literacy Foundation Chief executive Officer Mr Andrew Kay today called on Nigeria’s Government and education and community leaders to place a higher priority on reducing high illiteracy rates in Nigeria.

Speaking at the World Literacy Summit opening today in Oxford, United Kingdom, Mr Kay said the eradication of illiteracy should be considered an investment rather than a cost for Nigeria.

The estimated financial cost of illiteracy to Nigeria was $4.97 billion (USD), mainly due to the impact on social and economic factors to both individuals and the country’s broader economy.

The three-day literacy conference opened today in Oxford University and is aiming to build a collective action plan to eradicate illiteracy by 2020. About 60 ambassadors and 200 global education and literacy experts are attending the summit.

“This action plan will be the blueprint to continue carrying the torch in the fight against illiteracy after the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals has passed,” Mr Kay said.

“This week at the Summit, we will be seeking a new pledge from literacy and development leaders from countries across the world including Nigeria.

“This renewed pledge will seek to improve teacher training and monitoring, support effective assessment systems for literacy, and increase the gender and socio-economic equity in literacy levels. We want to help end the human tragedy once and for all.”

Globally, it’s estimated 800 million people can’t read and write, with a further 100 million children not attending school.

“About one in five people across the world are functionally illiterate. This means their literacy skills are so poor that they cannot complete tasks such as reading a medicine or food label or filling out a job or bank loan application,” Mr Kay said.

“We need to treat illiteracy as a disease that we are aiming to eradicate. We need to understand that early intervention can avert a lifetime of hardship, poverty and pain for a child, young person or adult who is struggling to read or write.

“No matter whether you live in the developed or developing world, poor illiteracy is ruining lives and is linked with an array of poor life outcomes, such as poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, crime, long-term illness, lost productivity in business and reduced income earning capacity in a job.”

The World Literacy Summit will see leaders from government, education and international development meet to address the key theme: “From Poverty, to Literacy, to a Future’.

On the last day attendees will map out a plan for making inroads into wiping out illiteracy, culminating in the “Oxford Declaration”.

The declaration will focus on three key areas including:

Improving teacher quality, training and monitoring – Strong, well-trained, committed teachers are needed to systematically improve literacy. High quality teaching is the most powerful determinant of a student’s overall education success and literacy skills.

Supporting effective assessment systems for literacy – Assessment systems at the classroom, local and regional levels allow authorities to track student results over time. They can also compare literacy rates and offer extra help and resources where needed to ensure quality education is reaching all students, including those most marginalized.

Increasing gender and socio-economic equity in literacy levels – Over the last decade, more people have had access to education but this masks large disparities across gender, socio-economic status, disability and ethnic lines. In particular, girls and children from low-income families are still marginalized and face challenges to attend and succeed in school.

A full copy of the World Literacy Foundation’s report “The Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy” can be downloaded from www.worldliteracyfoundation.org

For further information about the World Literacy Summit please visit: http://www.worldliteracy2012.org <http://www.worldliteracy2012.org>

For further information please call UK +44 7 867 933 115 or Australia +61 419 201 089

Email [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>