By Moses Nosike

In commemoration of 2025 International Literacy Day, the Rotary International District 9112 in collaboration with Lagos State Agency for Mass Education organised the District 2025-2026 Basic Education & Literacy Seminar with the theme, ‘Promoting Literacy in ‘A’ Digital Era’.

Speaking during the seminar, Director, Lagos State Agency for Mass Education, Mrs Oluwakemi Kalesanwo said that “the agency which is in charge of non formal education under the present administration of our governor, Governor Sanwolu, believes in collaboration, partnership and that is why there is Public Private Partnership. So, we collaborate with different agencies, NGOs and a lot of people. Also, we have our own stakeholders when it comes to non formal education, so we collaborate with them for us to be able to reach out to our target audience, which most of them are at the grassroots, who can’t read and write, those who never had opportunity of going to school at the right time. And of course, we have a lot of people that are unskilled because we also have vocational training centres where we teach them skills. In this programme, we are collaborating with Rotary to celebrate the International Literacy Day, which is celebrated worldwide every September 8, and since we are still in the month of September that is what we are doing”.

“Talking about achievement, the state alone has achieved a lot in non formal education. There are three major areas in which we carry out our duties in the Agency. The first one is mass literacy where we teach people how to read and write, as well as teach skills. We have almost 800 adult literacy centres spread across Lagos state and we are getting results”.

In addition, Rotarian and District Governor of Rotary International District 9112 Nigeria, Lanre Adedoyin, said, “September 8 was marked as International Literacy Day, and in Rotary, basic education and literacy is one of seven areas of our focus. We take education seriously. However, education is not about reading alone. Some can read while others are good at writing. A combination of both among other indices of knowledge sharing gives a well nurtured and balanced person. Some people are numerate in whatever they do, in other words, they can count numbers, especially the market men and women who believe that whatever they are doing, as long as they can count what they have taken or that has accrued to them as income or proceeds they are fine without necessary being able to write. Education is all encompassing and in a digital world we cannot afford to be left behind in this modern age of AI”.

Past President, Olushola Agboola, said, “We are embarking on this exercise to broaden the scope of literacy within Lagos state. And since this is part of the focus of Rotary International, this year we are capturing aspects of basic education. Last year, what we did was to sponsor 500 out-of-school children to get back to the classroom. We are stepping ahead this year to capture adults, by introducing vocational training and adult literacy education organising centres where those adults who are illiterate can attend and get educated. In the next nine months we will be admitting adults in our different centres across Lagos state that wish to go back to school”.

Furthermore, Associate Professor Lagos State University of Education at Ojo, Dr Hussain, Luqman said, “We are here to learn about digital education, how it has been a tool as official education. What we are trying to emphasise is that everybody needs to be digital literate, so that they can be abreast with the latest technology development all over the world, since the world is global and is going digital, nobody should be left out in digital literacy, even market women should make use of their phones in whatever they are selling. And digital literacy has a lot of benefits – it assists us as learners to connect globally, you can sit at your comfort zone to make business with someone not close to you. At the same time, we as scholars can collaborate with somebody outside our country in research. Also as educators, facilitators of literacy need to be trained and retrained so that they can be able to teach learners, the non formal education sector”.