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The Federal Government has insisted that only it cannot fund the education sector in the country, calling on stakeholders to contribute their quota to achieve proper funding for education.
Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, who made the assertion on Thursday in Abuja, said there is nowhere in the world that education is free because of the cost implication of providing education to the citizenry.
He spoke at the commemoration of International Literacy Day 2022, which was celebrated with students of Knosk-N100-A-Day secondary school in the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Opiah thanked the National Library of Nigeria for hosting the celebration in the school and appreciated the Proprietor of Knosk-N100-A-Day for the school initiative, while also calling on people and entrepreneurs to partner government on funding education.
He said: “Stakeholders must contribute to funding education, our investors, entrepreneurs, parents, government, nowhere in the world is education free. Government is providing infrastructure, the government is training and retraining teachers, the government is taking a lot of innovative steps to improve the quality of learning in schools, is also ensuring the safety of children in schools,” he stated.
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International Literacy Day was founded by the proclamation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) via the World Conference of Education Ministers held in Tehran on the 26 of October 1966.
The National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria, Professor Chinwe Veronica Anunobi, speaking during the event emphasized on the importance of promoting literacy and improve the reading culture.
She also spoke about the choice of Knosk-N100-A-Day-School to celebrate International Literacy Day.
Anunobi said: “At the National Library of Nigeria whose mandate includes promoting reading culture amongst Nigerians, we are doing our modest best-promoting activities that excite and attract the non-literate population towards developing reading and writing skills.
“Our activities are not only targeted at young people of school age, but also adults or those who think they are beyond the age of formal school education. To ensure inclusion, we promote reading and writing, not only in western languages but also in our indigenous languages.
“In some of our branches across the country, we have been holding literacy activities targeted at traders, masons, artisans and such other vulnerable groups, who we believe, we do better if they acquire literacy skills and we are open to collaboration with interested parties that are concerned about literacy in our society.
“I must single out the proprietors of Knosk-N100-A-Day-School, Mr Kingsley and Irene Bangwell, who did not only see the need but went ahead to set up this school, which has to prevent one or two children from growing up into adulthood without basic literacy skills and probably pass it to their offspring. God will bless you for that foresight and sacrifice.
“This year’s International Literacy Day is celebrated with the theme, “Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces.” It is aimed at stimulating a rethink about the fundamental importance of literacy learning spaces to build resilience and ensure quality, equitable, and inclusive education for all. It is a call for concerned individuals and organisations to fold their sleeves and contribute their quota in reducing the high rate of non-literate persons in our society as we accommodate every strata and native of the Nigerian population,” She stated.
Responding, the Proprietor of Knosk-N100-A-Day Secondary School, Irene Bangwell, said they founded the school in 2019, and parents pay one hundred a day for their kids to learn and with the money, the school give books to the students and sanitary pads to the female students. According to her they have ninety students and intend to take thirty more this session.
The Executive Director, National Institute for Nigerian Languages, Prof Obiajulu Emejulu, stated; “We at the National Institute for Nigerian Languages have chosen to focus our attention on a critical aspect of the theme which is linguistic diversity in the learning spaces of children. This is because linguistic diversity in a literacy learning space (another phrase for mother-tongue-based multilingual MTB-MLE) is a powerful tool for national development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Number 4, expected to be achieved by the year 2030, a mere eight years from now!”
Speaking earlier, President of Reading Association of Nigeria, Prof. Grateful Ofodu said; “A literacy learning space is anywhere and everywhere learning is fostered. Therefore, the following are literacy learning spaces: classrooms, homes, workplaces, churches, homes, mosques, streets palaces etc literally, we should provide something for learners to read, write, speak about, view and harness all our digital learning facilities like the Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram for the advancement of literacy. Let’s accommodate varieties in literacy learning spaces.
“Much thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic which exposed our frail literacy learning spaces as typified in families, educational institutions and the digital deficiencies and deficits to the globe. Now that we have to some extent moved from the traditional learning space to a blend of digital and tradition, it’s important to emphasise some of the ways of transforming our literacy learning spaces,” She stated.
The highlight of the event was presentation of awards to the students by the National Librarian and the Minister of State for Education, drama presentation and spelling competition by the students.
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