Beyond the illiteracy gaps created by the Covid-19 pandemic, persistent poor political will from both federal and state governments keep pushing Nigeria deeper to the bottom of E9 countries with the worst literacy levels in the world.
The Acting Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Mass Literacy and Non-formal Education, Maryam Umar Khalid, made the revelation at a Literacy Roundtable on Literacy Teaching and Learning in the Covid-19 crisis and beyond.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the closure of schools in most countries, including Nigeria.
Despite the introduction of online, radio, and television learning, the illiteracy gap created by the pandemic has remained worrisome to Nigeria, hence the need for this round table.
Also worrisome to stakeholders at this roundtable is the decline in Non-formal activities in 2019 and 2020, creating deeper barriers to learning opportunities for out-of-school children, dropouts, Youths, and non-literate people of all ages.
The adult literacy rate is the percentage of people from ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life and the latest survey says Nigeria’s literacy rate as of 2018 stands at 62.02%.
Editor: Ena Agbanoma
