Nigerian Times

Media Roundtable Discussion with Justin Chadwick, Director of the Movie, The First Grader from George Wada on Vimeo . Justin Chadwick's remarkable film The First Grader is our movie of the month and when you see it, you would be be thrilled to agree with our choice. Read the synopsis for a start. Kenya, 2003: A radio DJ announces that the Kenyan government is offering free primary school education to all. Maruge (OLIVER LITONDO), an 84 year-old villager, hears this and decides he wants to educate himself. Arriving at his local school, with a newspaper clipping about this change in policy, he meetsJane (NAOMIE HARRIS), the school’s principal, and expresses his desire to learn. Her colleague Alfred (ALFRED MUNYUA), in an effort to get rid of him, tells him all pupils need two pencils and an exercise book. The next day, Maruge returns, telling Jane he wants to learn to read. He has a letter from the “Office of the President” that he wants to understand. Exasperated, she tells him t...

Photo Credit: 31 Exchange 6 May 2011 18:37 Africa/Lagos Nigeria and UNESCO launch $6 million national literacy programme PARIS, May 6, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Efforts to achieve Education for All in Nigeria received a major boost today with the signing of an $6 million agreement between UNESCO and the Nigerian Government. Under the agreement, Nigeria will finance a project managed by UNESCO to revitalize adult and youth literacy in the country. It was signed today at UNESCO's Paris Headquarters by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Nigeria's Federal Minister of Education Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i. Although Nigeria has made considerable progress towards Education for All, illiteracy remains a major problem, with an estimated 50 million adults who cannot read or write. Furthermore, some 8.6 million Nigerian primary-age children are out-of-school. “The importance and enormous benefits of literacy both for individual empowerment and national development are...