BY BRIGHT JACOB
The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Anderson Ezeibe, has described as questionable the statistics by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah, which indicated that Nigeria’s non-literacy rate had dropped from 38 to 31 percent.
Ezeibe told The Point that in a country like Nigeria where insecurity and kidnapping, especially in the North East and North West, hadn’t been addressed or abated and where private organisations and individuals were taking over basic education, it would be a herculean task for the country to achieve any meaningful reduction in its illiteracy rate.
Last week, the Minister of State for Education announced during the 2022 International Literacy Day Ministerial Press Briefing in Abuja, that more Nigerians were now literate as compared to previous years.
Data from previous years showed that in 2003, the illiteracy rate was 45 percent, and in 2006, 2008 and 2018 it was 30, 49 and 38 percent, respectively.
Seemingly encouraged by this, Opiah said, “It is heartwarming to note that the current statistics of 2022, based on estimations, captured the non-literate population at about 31% of the estimated total population.
“This is a significant reduction from the hitherto statistics of 38% in 2015″, the Minister said.
However, reacting to the Minister’s address, Ezeibe said there was nothing worth celebrating, and pointed out that there was a relationship between literacy level and security situation in the country.
“There’s nothing to celebrate. As a matter of fact, I don’t know how he (Minister) came about those figures, the fact that it has reduced, because you know that there’s a relationship between the literacy level and the security situation.
“In those places that we are having challenges with respect to security, are you expecting people to be going to school? We know what has been happening in the North East because of Boko Haram and all that, and the impact it has had on education.
“We also know what is happening in a lot of places in the North West. So, how did he come about the fact that it (illiteracy rate) is reducing, because we know the insecurity in these areas has adversely affected education or educational activities there,” Ezeibe said.
Continuing, he said the incessant closure of higher institutions and incidents of bandits or terrorists, as the case may be, kidnapping school children, made one wonder how the Minister arrived at the data he used.
Lamenting the situation, he said, “I know that Federal Polytechnic, Kaura-Namoda, that is located in Zamfara State, was closed some time for about six months, and of course you know with that, some students will leave (and not return).
“Bandits and kidnappers come to schools and hostels and kidnap students in large numbers, and up till now, some of them have not even returned to their families, let alone returning to school. Do you then expect to have more people enrolling in schools in those areas? It’s not possible,” he judged.
Ezeibe also posited that Nigeria was a country that lived and thrived on figures, whether real or imagined, stating, “how we arrive at our figures is another matter altogether.
So, if his data is saying that it has improved, well, that is for him. But I don’t think we are having such a situation.”
Whether the reduction in the number of illiterates in the country was a significant achievement, assuming figures were authentic, Ezeibe stated that “nothing has been achieved.”
He said a country of more than 200m people with an illiteracy rate of 31 percent which is more than 60 million of the population and which, according to him, was the population of several West African countries put together, shouldn’t roll out the drums.
“The human development index in the country is nothing to write home about, unfortunately. And so the nation is not reaping the benefits of its huge human capital potential, and it has to do with our illiteracy level”
Ezeibe also said the “liberalisation” of the education sector would continue to rubbish the efforts of the government and disclosed that the likely celebration in view because of the Minister’s announcement will be for politicians who may think it will add some electoral value to their electoral fortunes.
“If you look at our population, we are a country of more than 200 million people, and you are talking about a 31 percent illiteracy rate. Do you know what that boils down to?
“30 percent of 200 million is more than 60 million and you think….okay, what’s the population of Benin Republic? What’s the population of Ghana? That (60 million) is more than the population of several West African countries put together, and then we have more people here (who are illiterates).
“There’s nothing to celebrate, particularly at this time that education has been liberalised a lot. Honestly, there’s nothing to celebrate, unless for ‘them’ if they think it has any electoral value to add to their electoral fortunes, but for me, I don’t see anything to celebrate there,” he told our correspondent.
Ezeibe, said Nigeria’s illiteracy level was a “massive” challenge to the nation as it impacts negatively on the population, thereby hindering the reaping of benefits from its huge human capital potential.
He also said that together with the about 19 million out-of-school children, Nigeria has “an army of illiterates in the making.”
He called the situation “lamentable” and submitted that no nation could develop that way.
“It is a massive challenge that a country of 200 million people, when our human resources, our population, is supposed to be our biggest strength as against the natural resources that we are now relying almost 100 percent on.
“The human development index in the country is nothing to write home about, unfortunately. And so the nation is not reaping the benefits of its huge human capital potential, and it has to do with our illiteracy level.
“You know about the number of people who are out of school. The number of out-of-school children in the country is about 19 million, you can imagine what that means. That is an army of illiterates in the making.
“There’s no way a country can develop like that. So, it’s a lamentable situation and that is why we keep talking about fixing education, fixing the sector,” he stated.
Whether the government had done enough to address the situation, Ezeibe said, “The events in the country point to the contrary.”
He also said previous administrations didn’t do enough in the education sector.
Ezeibe further pointed out areas like funding, supervision and regulation, as needing urgent attention and stressed that the three must “go together for you to gain any benefit from any form of investment in education.”
His words on the government’s effort: “The events in the country point to the contrary. I do not think that (they have done enough). Not just this government, but even previous governments.
“I don’t think they’ve done enough with respect to funding, despite the figures they bandy around. I don’t think they’ve done enough with respect to regulation. I don’t think they’ve really given education the right level of attention particularly in these three directions because if you are funding and not supervising properly, you’re not regulating properly, then the standard will not be kept.
“If you are regulating and not funding, what are you funding? All of these will have to go together for you to gain any benefits from any form of investment in education.
Ezeibe noted that all the while academic Unions went on strike, it was as a result of the government’s insensitivity to those areas. He described funding as covering areas around infrastructure and conditions of service and emolument of worker, while supervision had to do with the level of attention relevant ministries gave to education and regulation which concerned adherence to standards and enforcement of same by the requisite regulatory agencies.
“Everything you hear about going on strike and this or that, revolves around these three areas, and if the Unions’ education landscape is still complaining about this, then you will agree with me that we have not just done enough as a nation,” he said.
On measures the government can put in place to further improve mass literacy, Ezeibe said it was vital that the security in and around schools was improved. He also said it was necessary public sector participation was brought back in education.
Shedding more light on his second point, Ezeibe said that education currently exists at the public sector participation and alluded to the fact that ownership of education at the basic level was now dominated by private institutions.
Continuing, he noted that the standard of education in public primary and secondary schools had fallen, and said, “It is so tough now to get a public primary school or public secondary school that is doing very well compared to the private primary and secondary schools, and this was not the case before.
“A lot of us and the persons in positions of authority today as we speak attended public schools, but I can bet you that they cannot go back to these schools now because you may get there and those schools have decayed away,” he said.
In Ezeibe’s assessment, the public schools ought to be revived because they are affordable and within the reach of poor Nigerians. Anything short of this, he said, would only lead to more Nigerians refusing to send their wards to school.
“You cannot be looking at the poverty level in the country and be canvassing for private ownership of the majority of our educational institutions.
“If education is a social service, then the government has to play a pivotal role in ownership and in funding as well. I am a strong believer in this, to the extent that education gets subsidized and accessible to the poor,” he said.
