War drums here as world celebrates literacy day

As many other countries celebrate the World Literacy Day, a gloomy atmosphere prevails in Nigeria’s educational institutions, CHARLES ABAH writes.

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ON the World Literacy Day, 11-year-old Ngozi Chizara was sighted busy selling cooked groundnuts around the Ogba Road Industrial area in Lagos, while the rest of the world celebrated.

With a tray filled with groundnuts, she strutted up and down the area, attending to all manner of people, including workers and truck drivers.

“As I no dey go school, I dey take this one dey support my people,” the Ebonyi State youngster told our correspondent in her smattering Pidgin English. Prodded to speak further about her life and family, she declined, claiming that she would not tell that to a stranger.

She is not alone in this situation. No fewer than 10.5million Nigerian children, aged between six and 11, with most of them being girls, are still not in school at a time the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organisation is demanding a change in the status quo. There is also the issue of cultural bias, especially in the North, where many parents prefer to send their children only to Qur’anic rather than formal schools.

In states like Borno and Yobe, schools have even been shut for some months, following the activities of members of the Boko Haram sect, who are kicking against formal education in the country. Apart from attacking government buildings and worship places, members of the sect have raided schools, destroying facilities and killing pupils and their teachers.

Beyond the situation at the primary and secondary school levels, the celebration of this year’s literacy day in the country’s universities has been very solemn. Across the public universities, for instance, the state of affairs practically conveys a feeling of despair to many. Of course, this is understandable. Academic activities have been grounded in all but two of the 78 public universities, following an industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Members of the union, in the last 71 days, have been protesting against sundry issues bordering on poor funding of education, improved conditions of service, autonomy and academic freedom – among others, at a time UNESCO is promoting literacy as “a driver for sustainable and inclusive development.”

According to UNESCO, this year’s celebration of the world literacy day, tagged “Literacies for the 21st century”, highlights the need to realise “basic literacy skills for all” as well as equip everyone with more advanced literacy skills as part of lifelong learning.

Its Director-General, Ms Irina Bokova, expressed this feeling on Monday when she said, “Literacy is much more than an educational priority – it is the ultimate investment in the future and the first step towards all the new forms of literacy required in the 21st century. We wish to see a century where every child is able to read and to use this skill to gain autonomy.

“On this International Literacy Day, we call on governments to work together to achieve this dream. This requires new funding, policies drawn up with the populations concerned, new and more innovative forms of action, taking full advantage of new technologies. The progress made in recent years shows that this is possible, and UNESCO is committed to doing all that it can to make it happen.”

However, as the world body sounds hopeful, observers say despondency has been the lot of many Nigerian students who have been at home, uncertain about when they will return to their campuses. The same unsure situation, they note, is the burden facing many parents and other stakeholders in the country. According to a professor of Education at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Onwukwe Alaezi, it is unfortunate that the country is marching backwards when the rest of the world moves forward.

He notes, “The slogan across the world is attaining mass literacy as soon as possible, but the opposite is the case in Nigeria. There is no half measure in the education of the people. It has to be of standard. The closure of the nation’s universities, for instance, has a spiral effect on the polity. Without quality education, there will be no quality service, be it in politics or in business. So, the Federal Government must have a rethink about the sector.”

For an educationist, Babatunde Kolade, the “almost unnoticed celebration” in the country is because of the lack of understanding of the sector by the policy makers.

He says, “The policy makers are not taking the issue of education seriously. If it is the Valentine’s Day, the feeling will be palpable. This is why there is so much trouble in the education sector. Apart from the Rivers State Government that organised a reading competition, the FG and many other states did not even issue a statement. This is an indication that the policy makers lack a grasp of the importance of education.”

Analysts also point to the fact that the funding of the sector is very poor. According to them, what the FG devotes annually to education is distant from the UNESCO’s 26 per cent stipulated requirements. In fact, they observe that only eight per cent of this year’s budget was devoted to nation’s education.

Little wonder, striking university teachers, through their President, Dr. Nassir Fagge, are insisting that the FG must inject more funds into the sector. Fagge, speaking to our correspondent, notes that the bail out of the nation’s public universities is inevitable for hope to return to the sector.

According to him, if FG can assist the private sector, including the textile industries, banks and Nollywood, it can as well bail out the public universities.

He adds, “If the FG respects the 2009 agreement it signed with ASUU, it will help to address a multitude of problems in the education sector. The union is stamping its feet to do what is right. It is not about personal gains of salaries. If it were, we would just collect our salaries and the brain drain would continue in the system. But we are interested in delivering on our mandate and we need the tools to do so.”

Alaezi also shares Fagge’s philosophy. The former Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Studies, MOUA, says the funding of education is “grossly inadequate.”

He insists, “The world standard cannot be lowered because of Nigeria. Our education budget is nowhere near the civilised countries’. Our education budget is decades behind and this is not acceptable. With better funding, there will be improved quality education and this will eradicate the Boko Haram and other insurgent groups in the country.”

However, while the FG has responded by releasing N130bn for infrastructure development and allowances, ASUU says the sector requires about N500bn for the 2012/2013 academic session alone.

Another education consultant, Dr. Babatunde Omisore, is not even excited about the Literacy Day event. As far as he is concerned, the event has no bearing in the country, especially with the closure of its public universities.

He says, “The standard of education in the country has been falling but the shutting of the universities has become the final death kneel. We need to go back to the basics to overhaul the system.”

Supporting the demand for better funding, he declares that the striking lecturers demand, is not for their selfish interest. Their request, he adds, is just to have a better learning environment and instruments for research.

On the issue of the about 300, 000 out of over 1.5m candidates securing university admission every year, Omisore blames the contradiction on the dearth of infrastructure and facilities.

The FG, he says, is not planning for youths seeking admission to the universities. He notes that in many of the firs-generation universities in the country, their facilities have remained static and so is their carrying capacity.

However, as analysts assess the situation, there are still threats and counter threats from other academic associations in the country. For instance, teachers under the auspices of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, only on Monday, protested against what they described as government’s nonchalant attitude to the development of the colleges.