What  Position  Is Nigeria On Literacy Rate List?

Below is the ranking of African countries by the literacy rate, according to Indexmundi.
This entry includes a definition of literacy and Census Bureau percentages for the total population, males, and females.
There are no universal definitions and standards of literacy. Unless otherwise specified, all rates are based on the most common definition – the ability to read and write at a specified age (15 and above). Detailing the standards that individual countries use to assess the ability to read and write is beyond the scope of this article.


Information on literacy, while not a perfect measure of educational results, is probably the most easily available and valid for international comparisons. It is impossible to overstate the importance of education especially in Africa. Low levels of literacy, and education in general, can impede the economic development of a country in the current rapidly changing, technology-driven world

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Malala defies Taliban on girls’ right to education

UNITED NATIONS  (AFP) – Malala Yousafzai took over the United Nations on Friday, nine months after a Taliban gunman put a bullet in her head believing he was ending the Pakistani teenager’s campaign for girls’ education.

The girl will mark her 16th birthday with her first public speech since making a near miraculous recovery from the attack on a school bus near her home in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

Doctors had to place a titanium plate over the hole in her skull and her hearing has been badly affected. But Malala has become a global superstar and a favorite to become the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She has already been named as one of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2013 and has reportedly secured a $3 million contract for a book on her life story.

“This frail young girl who was seriously injured has become such a powerful symbol not just for the girls’ right to education, but for the demand that we do something about it immediately,” said former British prime minister Gordon Brown, UN envoy on education who organized World Malala Day.

“There will be no compromise with any religious extremist who says girls should not go to school or stop going to school at 10,” Brown told CBS News.

Malala is expected to use her speech at a UN youth assembly to lecture UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and any listening world leaders on the need to keep a promise to provide universal primary education by the end of 2015.

She will also hand over a petition to Ban signed by more than 330,000 people calling on the 193 UN member states to finance teachers, schools and books to meet the education goal.

“From the day that terrible shooting — assassination attempt — took place, Malala Yousafzai is a symbol for the rights of girls, and indeed the rights of all young people, to an education,” said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.

“And she has further underscored that symbolism through her remarkable recovery and her eloquence in explaining her case and her position,” Ban’s spokesman added.

The Taliban made it clear that the aim of the shooting was to let the world know that girls have no right to equality at school.

Now, more girls than ever before are attending schools in the Swat Valley.

But the United Nations estimates that 57 million children of primary school age do not get an education — half of them in countries at conflict like Syria.

“Students and teachers across our globe are intimidated and harassed, injured, raped, and even killed. Schools are burned, bombed, and destroyed,” said Diya Nijhowne, director of the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack.

Nijhowne highlighted a horrific attack in northern Nigeria last week.

Gunmen from the Boko Haram Islamist group — whose name literally means “Western education is a sin” — broke into a secondary boarding school and killed 41 students and one teacher before setting fire to the building.

According to Ban’s annual report on children and conflict, 115 schools were attacked last year in Mali, 321 in the occupied Palestinian territory, 167 in Afghanistan and 165 in Yemen.

Schools were also a regular target in Pakistan when Malala started a diary at the age of 11, written under the pseudonym of Gul Makai, the name of a Pashtun heroine, that was published on BBC Urdu.

The young girl built up a worldwide following of supporters as she told of the anxiety she and friends felt as they saw students dropping out for fear of being targeted by militants. Girls also refused to wear uniforms to school in case militants saw them.

Malala and her family briefly left Swat during a government offensive on the Taliban controlled territory.

On their return, they were the subject of threats by militants before the attack on October 9 last year.

The family now live in Birmingham, England where the girl has undergone surgery and rehabilitation. The Taliban said it shot Malala because of her efforts to promote “secular education” and have made it clear she remains a target.

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Olashore urges improved investment in education

An educationist, Chief Abimbola Olashore, has said that only a
continuous investment in education by the Federal Government can
improve the falling standards of education in the country.
Olashore expressed the need for government to set a high standard in
the education sector and sustainit with constant investment.
The proprietor of Olashore International School, who made this remark
during an interaction with parents in Port Harcourt, explained thatit
was necessary for government to always upgrade the infrastructure
inthe sector.
He said government must go back to the drawing board and provide an
all-round education that would include vocational training, adding
that such step would make the students better off.
"Education is about investment and having a vision. What the
governmenthas failed to do is to continually invest in schools.The
school is not just about buildings; it is about making the school a
learning organisation that is continually improving.
"The government also has to keep on upgrading the infrastructure. If
governmentis involved in education, it should make sure it sets for
itself a very high standard and should also do the investment to
maintain the standard it has set for itself.
"Our biggest problem in Nigeria is about lack of skills. You want to
do ordinary plumbing work; you go and get people from Togo. We must
begin to develop skills.
"Today, we have graduates who have no skill. They can't do anything;
and that is because of the failure of the system. But we have gone a
step further to do it," Olashore said.

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...allstudentcampus...

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Ooni calls for emergencyin education

Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, has called for
a state of emergency in the education sector.
He spoke at the awards of St. John's Grammar
School, Oke-Atan, Ile-Ife, Osun State as part of the
school’s golden jubilee.
The monarch, who was represented by Atilade
of Fashina Ife, Oba Oladoyin Ogunwusi,blamed
the spate of violence in the country on the
collapse of the school system resulting in the high
rate of illiteracy, said he would rather all
stakeholders declare emergency in the country's
education sector.
At the event, a law maker, who represents Osun
East Senatorial District, Senator Babajide
Omoworare and three others were honoured by
the school.
The gesture, which formed part of the school's
Golden Jubilee was in appreciation of the quartet
for their contributions to the uplift of the
academic and infrastructural development of
their alma mater, according to the management.
The school, founded in 1962 by the late Rev.
Father Fabian Cloutier, a French Canadian
Catholic Missionary, was said to have contributed
immensely to the upbringing of many men and
women in Ile-Ife community and the
neighbouring villages. As a result, the school's
old students' association has remained
committed to reviving its old glory.
Senator Omoworare, Dele Alabi, an engineer and
the association's President, Chief Sunday Bolaji,
were conferred with the award of excellence.
Omoworare, who passed out from the school in
1984, recently renovated the administrative
block, which houses the staff room, school hall,
and sports store, among others. He equipped the
offices with furniture and supplied a borehole to
ameliorate the water scarcity that had one of the
school's albatross for years.
The lawmaker said reforming the school system
is a business for stakeholders, including parents,
guardians and philanthropists, as, adding
government alone cannot resolve all the
challenges.
"Like every other parts of the world, education is
too important to be left in the hands of
government alone for control. There is need for
us all to rise up to the occasion and bail out these
schools from their terrible status. When we have
a well-educated society, we can begin to talk
about crisis-resolution, job creation, war against
corruption and better governance," he said.
He canvassed support for education, assuring of
the state of good works and dividends of
democracy, especially quality of education for
youths. He reminded the gathering of the
education tablet Opon Imo, which is the recent
innovation from the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-
led administration to develop model schools that
would make learning and teaching attractive to
the students and their teachers.
Presenting the award plaque, the Atilade of
Fashina Ife, Oba Ogunwusi, thanked the
recipients.
The Principal of the school, Mr Femi Makinde,
also an alumnus, praised his colleagues for their
support, encouraging others to return to their
former schools and replicate same.
"With this gesture, we must understand that
alumni associations for schools are too
important to be neglected. We must also note
that it is not until we become senators or
governors that we can give back to our school. It
does not have to be in cash at all times, even if we
can just be visiting for inspection and we report
whatever we find to other old students who
might not have time to visit, we might just be
doing a great job. Without education, the crises
facing Nigeria cannot be resolved and the best
way to return the education sector to the old
glorious days is for us all to take the bull by the
horns," Makinde said.

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