54% of Nigerians are illiterates- Ex ASUU President.

54% of Nigerians are illiterates – Ex ASUU president

October 27, 2014.

Abuja – A former President, Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Oladipo
Fashina, on Monday said that 54 per cent of
Nigerians were illiterates.
Fashina spoke at the opening of National
Education Summit with theme “Toward a
System of Education for Liberation in Nigeria,’’
held in Abuja.
He said that only 15 per cent of Nigerians had
managed to attain higher education since the
country’s independence 54 years ago.
“The present crisis in education is an offshoot
of the neo-liberal misdirection which Nigerian
people did not choose.
“Our rulers still insist in the main that the
solution to the crisis in education lies with
flooding the country with private schools,
universities and commercialised education to
operate in acceptance with market rules.
“This explains why public expenditure on
education has never gone anywhere near the
UNESCO prescription that each country
should expend at least 26 per cent of its
national budget on education,’’ he said.
Fashina said that Nigerian education had also
witnessed policy summersaults arising from
inadequate conception of the philosophy,
purpose and practice of education and class
domination.
He noted that for effective national
development in the education sector, it must
be re-conceptualised in a manner that would
make it capable of performing its
transformative functions for the nation at large.
Fashina said that the summit would chart a
new pathway for educational delivery capable
of fostering the needed body of knowledge,
skills, value and ethics in liberating education
system, among others.
“We are expected to come up with viable
proposals the acceptance and execution of
which will bring about a re-engineering and
liberation of the education sector.’’
The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim
Shekarau, commended the organisers of the
summit, which he said was timely.
Shekarau, who was represented by Mrs Ann
Harrison, the Deputy Director, Institution
Services, said that the summit would not only
identify mistakes but strengthen the sector.
“The summit will also strengthen the pitfalls to
avoid in the future and also come up with
recommendations that will move the sector
forward,’’ he said.
Prof. Biodun Jeyifo, an academic don at
Harvard University, Cambridge U.S., who is
also the Chairman of the summit condemned
the educational module which Nigeria still
adopts.
Jeyifo said that lack of proper implementation
of the education policies were the reasons
Nigerian universities produced graduates that
were unemployable.
He noted that corruption and policy somersault
were at the core factors limiting the education
potentials of the country.
The summit was jointly organised by Senior
Staff Association of Nigerian Universities
(SSANU) National Association of Academic
Technologists (NAATS).
Others are Non-Academic Staff Union of
Educational, Associated Institutions (NASU)
and including coalition of civil societies. (NAN)