Nigeria celebrates Literacy Day

About 200 school children drawn from primary and junior secondary schools in the state will participate in the celebration which is expected to be chaired by Governor Namadi Sambo. The International Literacy Day, set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to remind the international community of the status of literacy […]

About 200 school children drawn from primary and junior secondary schools in the state will participate in the celebration which is expected to be chaired by Governor Namadi Sambo.

The International Literacy Day, set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to remind the international community of the status of literacy globally, will feature various activities like story telling, reading and writing exercises, spelling bees, pick and tell, celebrity reading, poetry performance, theme talk and drama presentation among other activities.

The one day event, jointly organised by the National Action Committee for Read Campaign (NACOREC) and the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board will take place Government Secondary School, Abampa, Kaduna.

The Minister of State for Education, Hajiya Aisha Jibrin Dukku, who is also the chairman of NARCOREC, will declare the event open and also read to the children as a Celebrity Reader to demonstrate the importance of reading.

Other celebrity readers will include wife of the state governor, the commissioner of education, the NTA Zonal Director and the SUBEB Chairman among others while Mr Willie Eyo of the Peniel Library, Abuja, will deliver a theme talk on this year’s theme: “The Power of Literacy”.

Miss Ada Uduku, the Read Campaign Desk Officer at the Federal Ministry of Education, explained that the decision to take the campaign to Kaduna was made with a view to reach out to more children. “All our activities in recent times, mostly as a result of funding challenges, have been taking place in Abuja but, for once, we felt there was a need for us to move out so that other states can also benefit from these activities”, she said.

Alhaji G.Y. Bello, acting director for Basic and Secondary Education in the Ministry, who has also been standing in for the Minister of State and Chairman of NARCOREC, said the event would serve as a launching pad for the read campaign at the state and regional levels.

“This celebration will be immediately followed by attempts to launch the campaign at regional and state levels, hopefully before the year rounds up, so that as soon as we enter into the New Year we can begin to executive our work plan”, he said.