The executive director of Agency for Mass Education in Kwara state, Hajiya Fatima Oba-Banu has called on the state government to as a matter of priority; improve mass literacy in the state.
Oba-Banu made the call in an interview with journalists Thursday in Ilorin. She said that mass literacy would increase adult literacy and provide job opportunities to the people of the state.
“We have both literacy centre and vocational centre in the agency where we teach our learners how to read and write, including some knowledge in Mathematics, English, Social Science and Health
“We also train them on different vocational skills, but the literacy class is divided into basic literacy and post literacy, and we award certificate to our learners who passed the examination.
“Certificate is also given to those that learn vocational skills, like sewing, knitting, catering, clock moulding, Hair dressing, computer training, soap making and lots more,” she said.
Oba-Banu said that the agency had been in existence since 1992, and in all the 36 states, but stressed the need for Kwara offices to be renovated.
She said in accordance with the federal government standard, there should be 10 learning and vocational centres in each of the local government areas in the state.
“We have 82 learning centres and 11 vocational centres across the state and most of them were donated by the communities.
“All the centres are in poor condition, despite the high number of interested Kwarans.
“There are illiterate, job seekers, students from higher institutions and even public servants that are ready to learn literary knowledge or vocational skills
“We are only surviving with the allocation from the federal government, which is not enough for us to cater for all our needs and even pay for all the staff that are training the learners.
“In some parts of Kwara, like Kwara north, most of the people in the communities are providing spaces for the agency to train them, and even buying their equipment by themselves for learning, which is not supposed to be so.
“The agency for mass education is to be free for all interested learners, and all necessary resources should come from government.”
The director said that because of logistics problems, some of their centres have closed down, and the existing ones are in poor condition.
She therefore, urged the government, non govermental organisations, philanthropists and concerned Nigerians to assist and collaborate with the agency to make the less privileged self-dependent.
