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MAKING THE NEEDS OF THE COUNTRIES WITH HUGE POPULATION OF ILLITERATES THE HEART OF CONFINTEA VI: A call from Nigeria

 

RASHID ADERINOYE

National Secretary, Nigerian National Council for Adult Education (NNCAE)

 

In Nigeria, the historical development of adult and non–formal education has been interwoven with the history of formal schooling. From the early decades of the colonial period, the British government in Nigeria paid little or no attention to the provision of adult education. It was not until pressure and criticisms came from the Phelps-Stokes Commission report that the British colonial government made some feeble and half–hearted efforts to improve educational provisions in the British West African colonies.

 

There appears to have been some conceptual problems surrounding the meaning and scope of adult education. These problems tended to have affected its historical development. However, while it is recognized that informal learning forms part of the educational pattern by which adults traditionally gain knowledge and understanding, adult and non–formal education is generally used to connote organized activities and programmes concerned with the education of adults outside the formal school system. 

 

Certainly, the social milieu and circumstances of a given society strongly influence the pace and pattern of adult education development.

  

During the 1940s especially after the publication of the document, Mass Education in

African Society in 1943 by the British colonial government, some attention was paid to the provision of adult literacy in Nigeria. The programme took off in 1946 with the appointment of Mr. A.J. Carpenter as the first Mass Education Officer for the whole country. Unfortunately, the programme was never fully implemented.

  

During this period, various constitutional changes took place in Nigeria especially after the Second World War. One of such developments was the 1951 McPherson Constitution which ushered in Regional Governments controlled by Nigerians. These regional governments were given powers over education, health and local governments, among others. Hence, between 1952 and 1960 the regional governments embarked on policies aimed at developing the education sector. While the Western and Eastern regional governments provided Universal Primary Education (UPE), the Northern Regional Government opted for free primary and adult literacy in its War Against Ignorance. This set the tone for adult education development in the country during the first two decades of post-independence Nigeria.

 

National Policy on Education

 

The new policy which was revised in 1981, 1998 and 2004 has always devoted a section to the provision of Adult and Non–formal Education in Nigeria as the case in Section 6 of the 2004 policy shows.

 

Although there is a wide range of activities and practices which fall within the rubrics of Adult Education, the National Policy on Education identified mass literacy, remedial, continuing, vocational, aesthetic, cultural and civic education as the key components of adult and non – formal education in Nigeria. Mass literacy is given prominence perhaps due to the nation’s high percentage of illiteracy.

    

There is no doubt that Section six of the current edition of the National Policy captioned Mass Literacy, Adult and Non–Formal Education was anchored on the need to provide adult basic education for millions of Nigerian adults and youths in line with EFA, MDGs and UBE goals. Universal Basic Education is the Nigerian version of EFA. 

    

The National Policy on Education continues to guide the provision of adult and non–formal education in Nigeria at all levels of government. Similarly, states and local governments can and do also formulate adult education policies which are consistent with the national one but which may be peculiar to local conditions. This is in line with the principle of federalism in Nigeria.

 

National Commission and State Agencies for Mass Education       

        

Although policies and programmes concerning adult and non – formal education in Nigeria had been made during colonial rule and after independence, the setting-up of autonomous adult education outfits outside the ministerial structure is a recent development. The Nigerian National Council for Adult Education (NNCAE), an association of mainly academics in the practice of Adult Education, has since inception in 1971 advocated for the establishment of a national adult education agency for the country. This led to the setting-up of the adult education unit in the Federal Ministry of Education in 1974. The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non–Formal Education however came into being and took off in 1991.

 

During the 1980s, many state governments set up their own adult education agencies with

a view to changing the adult literacy status of their citizens for the better. At the Federal level, some agencies such as Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) and the Directorate for Social Mobilization (MAMSER) all sought to address the adult education needs of Nigerians. The National Adult Education Centre, Kano was also set up in 1986 under the Federal Ministry of Education with a view to developing adult education materials and the training of adult education personnel throughout the country. The Centre had some modest achievements before it was taken over by the newly established National Commission for Mass Education (NMEC) in 1991.

 

It is on the basis of this, one is  seeking to request that I would like  the other side of the world to know what  the situation looks like here with LITERACY as we are preparing for the CONFINTEA VI. As much as I would have loved to contribute to issue relating to migration, I am forced to  write on what is think is a priority to us in the Nigerian forum of Adult and Non-Formal Education.

 

Reading through the  policy provision and the structure in place  you might tend to think that all is rosy with literacy. This is not so.

        

Expected commitment from the political class is not forth coming inspite of the efforts of the civil societies and the professional body of adult education. Nigeria with more than 60 million non-literates as the current literacy rate is about 57% meaning that more than 40% are non literate which translate to 60 million.

        

From the foregoing, it will be necessary for CONFINTEA VI to assist countries that are already labelled E-9 countries to find ways of reducing their huge population of non-literate. This is if our interest will be adequately represented.