BY AZUKA ONWUKA
USING data from sources like UNESCO, World Bank, and Our World in Data, Data Pandas published the 2024 literacy rate involving 207 countries. The last 10 on the list, excluding Afghanistan, are African countries. The last 20 on the list, excluding Afghanistan and Pakistan, are also African countries. Nigeria is among the last 21 on the list, while South Sudan, Guinea, and Niger are at the bottom of the list.
Conversely, nine out of the top ten countries are European countries. Seven of them had a 100 per cent literacy rate: Finland, Norway, Luxembourg, Andorra, Greenland, Liechtenstein, and Uzbekistan. The other three in the top 10 – all with literacy rate above 99 per cent – are Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. For those who erroneously think that literacy means the ability to read and write in English, note that none of these ten countries is an English-speaking country. Literacy rate is more about the capacity of people to read and write in the official language of instruction of the country in which they live. This usually determines their ability to secure employment.
When I sieved the African countries from the list and ranked them, the top 10 African countries in terms of literacy rate are Seychelles (95.32%), Equatorial Guinea (95.20%), South Africa (94.60%), Sao Tome and Principe (91.75%), Libya (91.39%), Namibia (90.82%), Mauritius (90.62%), Cape Verde (88.47%), Botswana (88.22%), Eswatini (87.47%). Nigeria is ranked 35th with 59.57 per cent literacy rate.
On the latest list of ranking of countries in terms of the Human Development Index, most of the countries in the top 30 on literacy rate also feature in the top 30 of HDI. It is a pointer to the fact that literacy rate correlates with human development. The more educated people are, the better opportunities they have in life. Getting jobs become easier. In addition to getting jobs, such people have more opportunities to get better-paying jobs. And with access to money comes more access to the good things of life like health care, holidays, security, especially in countries where these facilities are not provided by the government.
When people are gainfully employed and can take care of their basic needs and are sure of tomorrow, that is social stability. Social stability has a direct effect on the security of the country. People who are gainfully employed and are sure of a good retirement life are less likely to get involved in financial crimes. When a country is stable and safe, that provides more opportunities for growth and development.
Last month, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund reiterated the figures from a report it had given in 2022 that the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria had risen to 18.3 million. While Dr Goodluck Jonathan was the president between 2010 and 2015, I used to compare the 10 million population of Portugal to the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, so as to make readers have concrete view of it. In about 25 years, the population of Portugal has remained 10 million, but the population of out-of-school children in Nigeria has ballooned to over 18 million, almost double the population of Portugal and slightly more than the population of the Netherlands. According to Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek), at the end of 2023, the population of the Netherlands stood at 17,947,684.
With 18 million children in Nigeria either abandoning school or not attending school at all, how does anybody expect peace in Nigeria? It is almost an impossibility to expect Nigeria to be at peace despite such staggering figures.
In May, the United Nations Children’s Fund had raised concerns over the rising cases of out-of-school children in Nigeria. The Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Tushar Rane, said 10.2 million primary school-age children as well as 8.1 million children at the junior secondary level are out of school in the country.
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Another report by UNICEF on Nigeria’s out-of-school children last year broke it down according to the six zones of Nigeria. The report noted that the North-West has a total of 8,044,800 out-of-school children; the North- East has 5,064,400; the North-Central has 2,115,800; the South-West has 1,146,900; the South-South has 431,300; and the South-East has 240,200 out-of-school children.
In the report, UNICEF was worried that Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children in the world. The report showed that only 63 per cent of primary school children regularly attend school. Unfortunately, UNICEF observed that rather than improving, the Nigeria educational crisis was worsening: “An analysis of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2021 reports between 2011 and 2021 shows an increase in dropout rates across all genders at the primary level, especially in the northern part of the country. Specifically, the primary-level dropout rate rose from one per cent in 2011 to five per cent in 2021.”
One can easily see a nexus between a low literacy rate and high poverty rate. While Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children globally, it also has the highest number of poor people in the world. On June 19, 2023, a report by The PUNCH quoted the World Poverty Clock as showing that Nigeria had 71 million extremely poor people. That was different from the 2022 report by the National Bureau of Statistics which classified 133 million Nigerians (out of the 220 million national population) as multidimensionally poor, with 86 million in the North, and 47 million in the South.
Marking World Hunger Day last year, the T200 Foundation unveiled Nigeria’s hunger report which showed that Nigeria has a serious hunger problem with a Global Hunger Index score of 27.9. However, there are considerable differences in the scores across states, with states in the North also having higher poverty scores. With a score of 44.2, Yobe State has the highest hunger poverty rate. It is closely followed by Sokoto with a score of 42.1. Other states with high poverty scores are Zamfara, Kebbi, and Jigawa.
If the connection between education and poverty can be fully understood and appreciated by the masses, there will be a higher desire to ensure that more children are trained in school and that many people don’t have more children than they can adequately cater for. It is true that poverty is a strong factor in determining which child goes to school or not, but poverty is not the only factor. For example, most states in the North-East and North-West offer free education to children, but many still don’t go to school, because of the perception that education is a Western thing. Therefore, the first step will be an orientation from religious and social leaders using themselves and successful, educated indigenes of the community to promote the importance of education in transforming the status and lifestyle of people.
For Nigeria to move up in the Human Development Index, its overall literacy rate must improve hugely. Additionally, the educational disparity between the South and the North has to be addressed and bridged. As long as all parts of the country don’t have literacy rates that are above 75 per cent, the well-being of Nigeria as a whole will be negatively affected. Therefore, an aggressive campaign for education and reorientation is something the government must embrace fully.
