The National Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education Commission (NMEC) Data at the disposal of NMEC shows that Nigeria has an adult literacy rate of 62% (2013 estimates), based on national population estimate of 165 million people. The implication is that the country has an adult illiteracy rate of 38%, representing about 62 million Nigerians. A UNICEF survey published in 2013 also estimated that Nigeria has over 11.3 million out of-school children (10 per cent of the global total and the largest number in any single country). Similarly, over three million nomadic school-aged children have no access to any form of schooling. The 2010 ministerial report on Madarasat education shows that some 9.5 million of the concerned children have no access to basic education. These are in fact the factors that put Nigeria in the E-9 Group of Countries–the nine most highly populated countries in the world that represent more than 53 per cent of the world’s illiterate population with over two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults and over half of the world’s out-of-school children. The problems are further complicated by regional, gender related and socio economic disparities in access to education. The country is also facing serious challenges of poor levels of retention, low completion rates and drop-out at various points in the educational cycle.
Functions of the Commission
(1) The Commission shall-
- work in co-operation with all concerned to eradicate illiteracy in Nigeria;
- design and promote strategies and programmes for the conduct and implementation of a National Mass Literacy Campaign in consultation with appropriate agencies of the Federal and State Governments, the universities and non-governmental agencies;
- monitor and co-ordinate activities relating to the National Mass Literacy Campaign in order to ensure the rapid and successful eradication of illiteracy in Nigeria;
- monitor and co-ordinate the implementation of all activities for the eradication of illiteracy in Africa and ensure the collection and dissemination of information on the implementation;
- organise in-service professional training courses for senior staff and operate training seminars for various levels of staff from government and non-governmental organisations;
- develop and disseminate teaching materials in distant education programmes aimed at primary school leavers as well as mass literacy, adult and non-formal education personnel;
- request and receive from all Ministries of Education, in the States of the Federation and other mass literacy adult education organisations throughout Nige- ria, annual reports and data on their adult education programmes;
- conduct research in various fields such as curriculum development, learning and teaching methodologies, appropriate educational technologies motivation of learners and instructions and needs assessments;
- organise annual conference of heads of adult education departments in State Ministries, agencies and institutions of higher learning;
- organise writers’ workshops in order to develop and promote teaching and learning materials in various languages, especially for primers, for graded readers, including follow-up reading materials, posters, demonstration kits, package courses, audio-visual materials and flash cards;
- run national and international training workshops and seminars, and also act as a coordinator and clearing house for national training for mass literacy, adult and non-formal education;
- organise conferences, workshops, symposia, lectures and seminars on topical issues related to mass literacy, adult and non-formal education on a regular basis;
- serve as a general means of exchange of personnel information experience and materials on mass literacy, adult and non-formal education;
- prescribe the manner and methods for integrating mass literacy, adult and non-formal system of education and for this purpose grant such necessary accreditation to courses of studies;
- lay down equivalent standards and negotiate with relevant institutions the acceptance of the standard accreditation and integration;
- commission special research programmes and pilot projects in mass literacy, adult and non-formal education in Nigeria;
- receive regular progress reports on the general situation on mass literacy, adult and non-formal education in Nigeria in relation to each national development plan;
- allocate fund from the Federal Government to relevant institutions on all recognised mass literacy, adult and non-formal education programmes;
- liaise with the institutions of higher learning in Nigeria and with international organisations on matters concerning literacy, adult and non-formal education;
- motivate and mobilise people to participate in mass literacy, adult and non-formal education programmes through the mass media, especially the mobile cinema;
- liaise with agencies concerned with nomadic education in order to accelerate the development of mass literacy, adult and non-formal education; and
- carry out such other activities as are conducive to the discharge of its functions under this Act.
Vision: To eradicate illiteracy for national development.
For more info, visit www.nmec.gov.ng
