The Nigerian government is mulling over possible collaborations with Indonesia and India to improve the delivery of mass literacy among women, girls and the marginalised rural population via the use of ICT, the education minister Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i has said.
Speaking during the opening session of the ninth E-9 Ministerial Review in New Delhi, India Prof. Rufa’i added that Nigeria is adopting an integrated approach to mass literacy. She said, in conjunction with three other E-9 countries, the nation has adopted clear-cut strategies for the intervention.
“In the case of India, literacy programme focuses on rural women, Egypt adopted national campaign to fight illiteracy, Mexico focuses on learning needs of illiterate indigenous groups and in Nigeria, model centres were built mainly for girls as well as the development of primers in 22 minority languages,” the minister said.
While suggesting constant monitoring of the learning centres and delivery of materials to the centres, Prof. Rufa’i said these are necessary to make the measures taken to be effective.
The minister also recommended that the Nigeria’s mass literacy models should be linked to employment generation and vocational skills acquisition at the centres.
She then advised E-9 countries to garner resources from development partners such as the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) of the United Nations, to bring to fruition the mulled mass literacy.
