Basic and Functional Literacy and the Attainment of Vision 20-2020 in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the role of basic and functional literacy in achieving the Vision 20:2020 in Nigeria. Despite her abundant human and material resources, Nigeria is plagued with high rate of illiteracy. The country is ranked among the nine countries with the highest population of illiterate individuals in the world, i.e. the group otherwise known as the E9 Countries which comprises of Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan. Without doubt, this contributes in one way or the other to the socio-economic backwardness of the country. Nigerian government recently launched a development plan known as Vision 20:2020.The Vision seeks to position Nigeria as one of the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020. The framework wants to use agriculture, industrial and service sectors to grow the economy at an average of 13.5% over the next five years. However, this paper recognised the important role of a literate society in achieving any development plan by emphasizing on effective and efficient basic and functional literacy programmes in the delivery of the Vision 20:2020. Some of the recommendations made includes: rejuvenation of adult basic literacy programmes in Nigeria’s Local Government Areas to cater for the non-literate adults at the grass-root level; constant training and re-training of workers handling literacy programmes for functionality; and adequate funding should be made available to the institutions saddled with the responsibilities of planning and implementing adult literacy programmes in the country.

Keywords: Literacy, education, development, vision 20:2020, Nigeria.