Nigeria and UNESCO launch $6 million national literacy programme
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...