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Nigeria: UN signs cooperation pact to boost adult and youth literacy

Nigeria: UN signs cooperation pact to boost adult and youth literacy

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova (right) and Nigeria’s Minister of Education Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i
The United Nations agency tasked with promoting universal access to education today signed an agreement with Nigeria to revitalize adult and youth literacy in a country where an estimated 50 million adults cannot read and write and nearly 9 million children are out of school.

The United Nations agency tasked with promoting universal access to education today signed an agreement with Nigeria to revitalize adult and youth literacy in a country where an estimated 50 million adults cannot read and write and nearly 9 million children are out of school.

Under the agreement with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Nigerian Government will finance a project managed by the agency to strengthen capacities for designing, delivering and monitoring quality literacy programmes at a cost of $6 million.

“The importance and enormous benefits of literacy both for individual empowerment and national development are well known and documented,” said UNESCO Executive Director Irina Bokova, who signed the agreement at the agency’s headquarters in Paris with Nigeria’s Federal Minister of Education Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i.

“As the UN specialised agency for education, UNESCO has at its disposal a huge reservoir of expertise and experience. Every effort will be made to mobilize and effectively deploy these resources for the benefit of Nigeria,” said Ms. Bokova.

Ms. Rufa’i said: “It is our hope that Nigeria’s successful implementation of this programme will serve as a model, not only for the E-9 countries, but also those in the Africa region and elsewhere, facing the literacy challenge.”

Ms. Rufa’i is the current chair of the E-9 countries, a forum for nine high-population countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan – to discuss their experiences in education, exchange best practices and monitor progress on achieving education for all.

The project in Nigerian will be implemented by UNESCO’s office in the federal capital, Abuja, over a 42-month period, in close cooperation with the relevant authorities.