The Federal Government has been urged to speed up efforts to put a mass literacy policy in place. A professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Lagos State University (LASU), Temitayo Bolarin, made this call in a paper entitled 'Compulsory Education and Mass Literacy as Indispensable Tools for National Development', which she presented at the 12th annual Fafunwa Educational Foundation lecture, held in Lagos, recently.

She said if the country was to achieve her objectives of the education for all by 2015 and the vision 2020, then, all hands must be on deck at reducing illiteracy saying, "No success can be attained by mere wishful thinking and words of mouth."

Bolarin said opportunities for continuing education must be provided for all those who have either dropped out of school or missed schooling for whatever reasons saying that it is only when this category of people are taken care of educationally, that our literacy level can improve.

The Professor, who is a graduate of Education from the University of Bath, England, regretted that despite the ideas put forward by the government on mass literacy, not much has been achieved. "For example by 1998, the adult literacy level in Nigeria was put at 44 percent, which means that 56 percent of Nigerians were illiterates. Then UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of education stated that about 65 percent of Nigerians are literates", she said.

Bolarin pointed out that another problem militating against mass literacy, is the fact that many of those who have received at least elementary education in the past are now sliding back into illiteracy, as they make no effort to further their education.

The Don, who also spoke about Universal Basic Education (UBE), urged Nigerians to commit the government into achieving its goals, particularly that of having all school-age children in school. "The Federal Government must realise that in the present 21st century, a person who has not been given the opportunity to read and write, is deprived of a fundamental human right. To be an illiterate at this present age, is to be condemned to a status which, in the circumstance of today is less than human", she said

For meaningful contribution to national development, Bolarin stressed the need for every Nigerian child to be given compulsory nine years of education stipulated in the UBE scheme.

Former Minister of Education, Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa, in his remark, said the introduction of the UBE policy was a lofty idea but over the years, it has been poorly implemented. "If I ask myself what the greatest achievement in the education sector was, I would say, it was the introduction of the UBE by the Obasanjo administration. As it is characteristic of Nigerians, we have lofty ideas but very poor implementation", he said.

He suggested that a state of emergency should be declared in the sector, in order to address the problems of cultism, examination malpractices, among others, adding, "unfortunately, we are being held down by a lot of other problems such as corruption. How can we get to vision 2020 when 10 million children are out of school? Corruption is all over the place. We have to employ well articulated people that would adequately man the education sector."

A cash award of N100, 000 each, was presented to doctoral candidates for their excellent theses. They were Drs. Adebola Ifamuyiwa of the University of Ibadan (U I), Emily Oluseyi Adeyemo of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife and Ijeoma Catherine Illoeje of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

Source: thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=123968