By Moses Nosike

In commemoration of the United Nation’s International Literacy Day, Grooming Centre has asked government and stakeholders to deepen support in promoting education especially among the grassroots in Nigeria.

This can be done by creating more awareness on the need to educate Nigerian youths, improve the learning standard in our educational system for social and economic development in line with the UN theme; “Literacy Teaching Learning in COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond.”

Addressing the participants at the event, the CEO of Grooming Centre, Dr. Godwin Nwabunka, represented by Miss Maureen Abumere stated that Grooming Centre has been at the forefront of promoting literacy in Nigeria.

The Lady Kate Okafor Foundation offers scholarships to children of over one million Grooming Centre customers spread all over the country. The Centre also offers scholarship grants to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Nigerian universities whose research projects are in the areas of microfinance, financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, and women empowerment. He called on the government and other well-meaning Nigerians to assist in promoting education to reshape our nation.

The Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Research in Enterprise and action in Management (CREM), a subsidiary of Grooming Centre, Martins Ndigwe said that International Literacy Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the importance of literacy globally and locally and to recognize Grooming Centre and CREM’s work in supporting this initiative at every given opportunity as a catalyst to promote research-based learning across different sectors in West Africa.

Ndigwe said, “literacy is so fundamental to learning that its importance cannot be overstated. It is the essential foundation of education; the ultimate aim of any education system is to equip learners with the necessary literacy, numeracy, and wider skills necessary to take control of their destinies and fulfill their potentials”.

He said further that literacy is the first step towards freedom, towards liberation from social and economic constraints. It is the prerequisite for development, both individual and collective. It reduces poverty and inequality, creates wealth, and helps to eradicate problems of nutrition and public health.

ALSO READ: France records more than 10,500 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours

Taking an insight into the Nigerian literacy statistics, Ndigwe said that Nigeria with over 200 million populations, more than 50 million, cannot read nor write. “This means that at present, more than 62.02% are not literate”.

Pointing some challenges why 62.02% of Nigerians are not literate, he said that poor governance, inadequate educational facilities, lack of interest in education, high poverty rate, and lack of information.

In its efforts to increase learning rate, Ndigwe said, “Our commitment to this initiative has driven us to embark on a determined journey to support 2 million Nigerians through our different channels, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and onsite to be literate for the next 5 years leveraging our ecosystem and our business school at Ejigbo, Lagos.

In his contribution, The Head of Psychology department, Lagos State University, Dr. Olufemi Lawal, said, “for effective and efficient knowledge impartation and acquisition in the COVID-19 era, methodologies, and contents of learning/training must align with the current recommended global standard to increase literacy level.

According to him, attitudes and cultures of learning/training must change for result-oriented, and the competence of teachers, trainers, and instructors must not be taken for granted.

Presenting a paper at the occasion, the Head of Corona Schools, Lagos, Mrs. Olaitan Sanyaolu said that the pandemic has unmasked substantial inequities in the education sector. Private and non-governmental sectors are tirelessly working to salvage this situation. Projects such as “Slum to School” and “Teach for Nigeria” hope to ensure proper tools for education.

According to her, focus on addressing learning losses and prevents dropouts, particularly of marginalized groups. The Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and government can do much to improve the quality of and increase access to, education for poor children in the fewer privileged communities.

CREM is a service provider in the areas of research, enterprise, workforce management and training delivery across Nigeria and West Africa. it equips organization’s human resources with skills, competences and change creating capacities.The Centre focuses on People, Process, Technology and Service to enable change in each of these areas leading to enhanced service delivery and customer satisfaction.

VANGUARD