The World Bank has expressed concern at
the growing population of illiterate adults in Nigeria, which has been
put at 46 million. The figure puts Nigeria in the category
of 10 countries of the world with more than 10 million illiterate adults
whose ages range from 15 years and above.
The bank stated this in a document
packaged for its State Education Investment Project, which would provide
$150 million credit facilities to Anambra, Bauchi and Ekiti states, in
collaboration with the Federal Government.
It said poverty was still significant in
Nigeria despite the nation’s strong economic track records and that
addressing the trend would require strong non-oil growth and a sustained
focus on human development.
It added that Nigerians “are relatively
poor, with about 46 percent of the population living in absolute poverty
and there is high inequality.”
The document added that “Nigeria still
faces considerable human development challenges, with poor human
development indicators, high regional disparities, and huge pockets of
extreme poverty, ranked 156 out of 187 countries on the Human
Development Index”
Speaking at the formal inauguration of
the State Education Investment Project in Abuja on Friday, the Acting
Country representative of the World Bank, Mr. Sateh El-Arnaoyi, noted
that Nigeria could only ensure a sustainable growth with massive
investment in education.
The country’s university gates have been
closed since July 1, 2013 when lecturers embarked on an indefinite
strike to protest poor infrastructure and non payment of their
allowances.
El-Arnaoyi also said the SEPIP was
designed to address issues of mobilising resources for human capital
development, compulsory basic education, teacher deployment, and
accountability aimed at complementing the programmes and priorities of
the three participating states.
He said the World Bank finance of $150
in credit would be made available to the Federal Government, which will
in turn disburse to the participating states to support their
educational development.
He said the states were selected through
transparent criteria, reforms, adherence to World Bank projects,
political commitment to reforms, fiscal responsibility act and
geo-political spread.
Minister of Education, Ezenwo Wike, said
the implementation of the project would be closely monitored by his
ministry. He commended the World Bank’s role in advancing the cause of
qualitative education in Africa.
Culled from The Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment