Education Crisis More Deadly Than Boko Haram, Says Local NGO

Better Life Restoration Initiative, BERI, a local Non-governmental Organization in Bauchi state has described education crisis in Northern Nigeria as more deadly than the Boko Haram Insurgency that has caused catastrophic destructions in the region.

The organization made the description in Bauchi while celebrating World Literacy Day.

The Executive Director of the NGO Mr Nkem Ogadinma Ogbonna who quoted World Development Indicators regretted that 7 out of 10 adults in Northern Nigeria cannot read nor write.

“As a Non-governmental Organization whose one of its thematic areas is eradicating illiteracy in Northern Nigeria, we are disturbed by the horrible figures that keep bedeviling our education sector. “The Boko Haram Insurgency we battle as a nation today is as a result of lack of education among our teaming youths who are increasingly growing dissatisfied with the system. “The situation is more precarious in the North; Nigeria cannot achieve political and economic greatness when the sizeable chunk of its population especially girls are not literate.”

The Director commended United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for expanding literacy and numeracy among Out of School Children in Bauchi and Sokoto through the Northern Education Initiative Plus (NEI+).

Mr Ogadinma who commended USAID and Creative International Associates for introducing digital platforms such as Voice SMS, Interactive Voice Response and other Social media strategies aimed at deploying messages that improve social behavior towards basic literacy in Northern Nigeria, express concern over the dearth of education infrastructure in the country.

The director in his recent visit to some Local Governments in Sokoto said the NEI-plus project has changed the lives of many Out of School Children hitherto left without education.

He however called on government at all levels to increase budgetary allocations on education and place more emphasis and commitment in increasing resources to early grade reading through training and retraining of teachers, which according to him will support school systems in providing quality education.

Haruna Mohammed Salisu       

Media and Communications Officer