Literacy is claimed to be an important component of the proper to education and a prerequisite for accessing other sorts of human rights. EMMANUEL PETER writes that the govt should cash in of this year’s International Literacy Day to deal with infrastructure deficits within the education sector to make sure that youths and adults have access to quality education.
Mr. Nwokezuike Onyensogbu may be a known figure at Okigwe parking lot in Owerri, the Imo capital . He starts his day with shots of the locally-brewed concoctions referred to as akpuruachia.
Those within the parking lot say that Nwokezuike behaves abnormally thanks to the effect of the surplus concoctions which he takes. it's affected his life also as creating an enormous hole in his pocket. Any money he makes is spent in settling debts and goes home almost empty-handed.
His father, Uchendu, had sent Nwokezuike to high school to be educated but any time he was given his tuition, he would spend it frivolously. He was of the view that without education, one can still normal life. But his lifestyle and condition of his family in terms of healthy living and therefore the development of the human person quite contrast together with his earlier boast.
He has become a nuisance to their community. this is often because he refused to require advantage of what education offers in terms of the event of the human person, development of the community and being imbued with the will for just, good social and cultural ways of life.
This could be why every family in Nwokezuike’s community ensures that their children are educated. Again, it might be reasoned that it had been during a bid to stop the type of experience that his family presents which negates the worth system of an authentic and organised society that the United Nations , through the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) proclaimed September 8 as International Literacy Day on October 26, 1966, during the 14th session of UNESCO’s General Conference. The day reminds people of the importance of literacy or education as a prerequisite for dignity and human rights.
Mindful of the present global health situation which features a ripple effects on most facets of life, UNESCO’s choice of this year’s theme that encapsulates the consequences of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) that has been ravaging the whole globe from December last year so far is apt.
The theme of this year’s event focuses on literacy teaching and learning within the COVID-19 crisis and beyond with a special emphasis on the role of educators and changing pedagogies.
The theme also focuses totally on young and adult early skills through a life-long learning context.
Literacy
Literacy is that the ability to read and write. However, there'll be some level of misconception if one interprets the lexical item superficially without having recourse to the noun sort of the word which means a state of being literate or being enlightened, learned, lettered, well-educated or well-read.
For clarity, let’s restrict the meaning of literacy thereto which translates to being educated.
The traditional definition of literacy because the ability to read and write is being deconstructed because it has been expanded to incorporate the power to use language, numbers, images, computers, and other basic means to know , communicate, gain useful knowledge, solve mathematical problems and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture.
Literacy amid COVID-19 pandemic
UNESCO’s choice of the theme of this year’s event which encapsulates the present global health issue is acceptable .
Information on its website notes that “the latest COVID-19 crisis was a pointy example of the growing divide between politics and reality: a disparity still present within the pre-COVID-19 period that has adverse consequences on the training of children and adults who have little to no awareness and are thus faced with numerous disadvantages.”
An educationist, Sir Theodore Agwaraonye said the recent COVID-19 crisis has delivered to the fore the disturbing gap between what should be and what's in terms of fixing place structures for quality education, a situation which has damagingly affected the training of youth and adults who haven't any or low literacy skills.
He said. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, adult literacy programmes were suspended. Schools were closed down throughout the federation, education of youngsters and youth was disrupted.
“The country wasn't prepared for the damaging impacts of the COVID-19 crises on youth and adult literacy educators with reference to teaching and learning.
“Policy formulators should address the infrastructure deficits, not only within the education sector but also altogether sectors.
Teaching and learning in times of COVID-19
Statistics has shown that with the COVID-19 pandemic, people with low literacy skills, who face multiple disadvantages in their daily lives, have also had limited access to health and preventive information about the coronavirus and online learning opportunities to continue their education.
The pandemic has thrown up the country’s state of unpreparedness with reference to infrastructure deficit, education systems, programmes, and personnel to make sure the continuity of teaching and learning in such a situation.
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To prevent this untoward situation, experts have suggested that “there should be a strong deliberation on innovative and efficient youth and adult literacy programmes that might mitigate the hitches engendered by the pandemic.
“There should even be an evaluation of the hindrances educators experience so as to evolve effective strategies, processes, governance and initiatives which will promote educators and education.”
Why literacy is vital
In the 19th Century, Douglass , a liberated African-American slave and champion of the abolitionist cause wrote in his book Forever Free that “Once you learn to read, you'll be forever free.” Douglass learned as a young slave that education and freedom go hand in hand.
His involve emancipation through reading, and more generally by mastering basic skills–literacy and numeracy–has invalidated the normal notion of literacy as being mere learning the way to read and write because it has become universal in scope.
Dr Chinedu Ifechigha of the Department of faith Education, Faculty of Education the University of Lagos holds the view that “literacy is that the initiative towards freedom, towards liberation from social and economic constraints. it's the prerequisite for individual and collective development. It also reduces poverty and inequality creates wealth and helps to eradicate problems of nutrition and public health.
“Literacy is an important component of the proper to education and a prerequisite for accessing other sorts of human rights. it's necessary to make sure that the youth and adults have access to literacy due to its ability to vary the lives of many people that have received little or no formal education.”
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Although since Frederick Douglass’ postulation on the liberty which education or being literate ensures considerable progress has been made within the area of lifting men and ladies , including the young ones from ignorance and dependency through a broad-based movement of literacy and straightforward access to education.
In the circumstances, it's unarguable that literacy and access to education isn't a privilege but a fundamental right . this is often so because “it is important for social and human development and provides individual the talents and empowers them to rework their lives, in turn, an improved standard of health and skill to earn a better income.”
Despite this, a world during which every individual has fundamental knowledge remains a mirage.
Benefits of being literate
Ifechigha believes that literacy brings about invaluable benefits for people also as society. As a part of policies and programmes that promote equality altogether aspects of life, literacy can contribute to empowering women and other badly off people and groups to participate in social, economic, political and cultural activities. especially , the cognitive, psychological, socio-cultural and economic benefits of literacy programmes are well recognised.
His view corroborates that of R.G. Ingersoll who, within the Liberty of Man and other Essays says “every child should be taught to be self-supporting, avoid being a burden on others…every child should be taught that the useful are the honourable which they who survive the labour of others are the enemies of society…Children should be taught to think, to research , to depend on the sunshine of reason, of observation and of experience…to embody their thoughts within the construction of things.
“Real education is that the hope of the longer term . the event of the brain, the civilisation of the guts , will drive want and crime from the world…”
Again, it's been noted that literacy is significant to the all-round development of humankind.
Information gleaned from the web site of READ (www.read.org.za/useful-info) which primarily operates as a teacher development agency within the fields of language, literacy and communication and a pacesetter in educational assessment, materials development and resource provision notes that “improved literacy can contribute to economic growth; reduce poverty and crime; promote democracy, and increase civic engagement…”
Illiteracy as obstacle
The state of being illiterate or lack of normal development of intellectual capacities, uneducated, want of learning or knowledge, ignorance or specifically, the lack to read and write produces a high level of socio-economic and political retardation.
Some of the negative effects of illiteracy are poverty, low standard of living, increase within the crime rate; though not all illiterates are involved in crimes, increase in cases of kid marriage as an illiterate parent who cannot send his or her children to high school easily consider marriage, infant betrothal and made marriage increase in drug and alcoholic abuse level, and high level of unemployment, poor health and increased deathrate .
Shocking statistics
According to UNESCO, 12 per cent of the planet population could read and write in 1820; only 14 per cent of the planet population remained illiterate in 2016. It added that over the last 65 years, the worldwide literacy rate increased by four per cent every five years–from 42 per cent in 1960 to 86 per cent in 2015.
In concrete terms, quite 260 million children and adolescents aren't enrolled in school; six out of 10 children and adolescents – around 617 million – don't acquire the minimum skills in literacy and numeracy; 750 million children and adults still cannot read and write.
Of these figures, Nigeria has its justifiable share as many of its adults don't have basic literacy skills. Additionally, there are an estimated 10.5 million out-of-school children within the country.
According to statistics, all isn't gloomy as Nigeria’s literacy rate for 2018 was 62.02 per cent, a 10.94 per cent increase from 2008 when the literacy rate was 51.08 per cent, a 3.7 per cent decline from 2003 when it recorded 54.77 per cent, a 0.67 per cent decline from 1991.
In terms of youth literacy rate, Nigeria, in 2015 recorded literacy rate of 72.8 per cent and an adult literacy rate of 59.6 per cent compared to global rates of 90.6 per cent (2010) and 85.3 per cent (2019) respectively. this is often consistent with data reported by the planet Bank.
The way forward
As the international community sets an ambitious 2030 agenda for sustainable development with education and learning central to its achievement as envisioned by the Incheon Declaration of Education 2030 and captured by the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” Education 2030 devotes considerable attention to literacy and adult learning.
It provides a chance for the three tiers of state to guage the strength and constraints of the education sector with a view to improving it where necessary.
For instance, because the federal and state governments, have announced resumption dates for schools after six months’ closure thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the govt should transcend the rhetoric of “putting measures in situ to avoid terrible increase of the disease so as to make sure the security of the children” to require appropriate measures faraway from ““washing of hands with running water, maintain corporeal distancing, and wearing a mask , among others.”
Government should have planned ahead preparatory to schools’ resumption. A situation where 50 pupils are cramped in one classroom as against UNESCO’s prescription of 30 pupils per class will negate efforts towards the children’s safety.
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Government should have built more classroom facilities in every school to avoid overcrowding.
Ensuring enduring literacy of the people requires everyone’s effort as stressed by the Minister of Education Adamu Adamu when he said: “Tackling illiteracy should get on everyone’s agenda. the essential education statistics show what proportion work that is still to be wiped out order to realize a point of acceptable equity in access to education and therefore the improvement within the quality of education generally .”
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