…Nigeria has a 62% literacy rate, UNESCO report shows
Chinwe Anunobi, the chief executive officer at the National Library of Nigeria has called on education policymakers and stakeholders to enforce teaching children in basic school in their various Indigenous Languages to close the literacy gap in the country.
Speaking recently at an event to commemorate the International Literacy Day (ILD) organised by the National Library of Nigeria in partnership with Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Libraries (ZODML) and Book Aid International in Lagos, Anunobi said, literacy has the cultural aspect of reading and writing in people’s languages.
“We must promote reading and writing in our indigenous languages, and make reading a life-long goal to improve the country’s literacy level
“Policymakers must take action, and provide policies that engender literacy; no country can develop without literate people,” she said.
Anunobi reiterated that for one to be called literate he or she must be able to decode and document symbols and that there is a cultural aspect of reading and writing that makes it necessary to master one’s indigenous language.
To achieve this goal, she said that there is a great need to begin by inculcating this in children at the basic school level.
“The level of a people’s literacy is judged by the number of people that can read and write their languages. This is why one country can be said to be more literate than the other.
“Literacy is not just all about reading and writing in the English Language. If you cannot write and read in Yoruba or Igbo, you’re not literate in Yoruba or Igbo,” she said.
This is in tandem with experts’ view that literacy rate is more about the capacity of people to read and write in the official language of instruction of the country in which they live.
The theme for the 2024 ILD is; “Promoting Multilingual Education: Literacy for Mutual Understanding and Peace”.
According to UNESCO, there is a pressing need to harness the transformative potential of literacy for promoting mutual understanding, social cohesion, and peace.
It challenges stakeholders to evaluate progress made and strive for desirable literacy outcomes.
In Nigeria, where 31 percent of the population is illiterate, and millions of children are out of school, it is another wake-up call on the national and sub-national governments to close the literacy gap.
Using data from sources like UNESCO, World Bank, and Our World in Data, Data Pandas published the 2024 literacy rate involving 207 countries.
In the list of the top 10 African countries in terms of literacy rate, Seychelles with 95.32 percent, leads the pack, followed by Equatorial Guinea with 95.20 percent, South Africa has 94.60 percent, Sao Tome and Principe with 91.75 percent.
Others are Libya 91.39 percent, Namibia 90.82 percent, Mauritius 90.62 percent, Cape Verde 88.47 percent, Botswana 88.22 percent, and Eswatini 87.47 percent.
Nigeria is regrettably ranked 35 with a 59.57 percent literacy rate. According to the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education, Nigeria faces challenges in promoting reading culture. Data from the commission indicates that four out of 10 portions of primary school children struggle with reading comprehension.
A 2023 United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) report further highlights this issue, stating that 75 percent of Nigerian children aged seven to 14 cannot read simple sentences.
Experts believe that literacy rate correlates with human development. “The more educated people are, the better opportunities they have in life. Getting jobs become easier. In addition to getting jobs, such people have more opportunities to get better-paying jobs,” they say.
