Ndi Enugu,
With the burgeoning increase in the number of out of school children in Enugu, this World Literacy Day rings an alarm for me.
Beyond the individual loss of good education, the impact of a low literacy level and poor access to education to the State is even more alarming.
We are inadvertently perpetrating a cycle of disadvantage, inequality and poverty through generations. Social cohesion and economic productivity are greatly affected. The inability to understand and apply information cascades down to challenges with health management, maintaining law and order and protecting human rights.
Illiteracy in all its forms poses a complex problem that requires concerted efforts to solve, beyond the rhetoric of distributing school supplies to a select few, posing with them for photo ops and paying hefty sums for wide media dissemination in an election year. Education is too essential to human life to be a mere political gimmick.
We must act with strategic vision and urgency knowing that the implication of doing anything less than aggressively driving literacy skills in our children will negatively impact our future in the long run.
As one with the goal to lead our State back to sanity and greatness, reducing the number of out of school children and improving the quality of our education is a priority for me.
With the dire challenges we face with insecurity, depleted public resources, endemic poverty and the effects of Covid19, my plan is to work with educators, parents and other key stakeholders to go out of the norm in formulating policies and implement strategies needed to reduce the proportion of children out of school by at least 20 percent annually.
The first step will be to appoint competent and ethical leadership for the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and begin to access UBEC counterpart funding. The right people in these core areas will ensure that we implement the right policies and have regulatory oversight over the educational system in the State and spend available funds strategically and transparently, making the reports publicly accessible via real-time dashboards.
We will institute compulsory basic education for all children and implement a curriculum that drives Values, History, Igbo language, STEAM and Digital Literacy.
The training, empowerment and recognition of teachers will be prioritized to foster commitment and dedication to the critical responsibility of shaping the minds that will lead our future.
We will also recognize and partner with non-governmental and private organisations with interests and investments in the education sector, ensuring a robust approach to meeting our goals.
I am also intrigued by the theme of this year’s World Literacy Day which is Transforming Learning Spaces. While this is essential for the contained spaces of our schools and other public learning facilities, I am also interested in the macro environmental conditions that demand we address the challenges of security and unsafe slums in the State.
As we deploy solutions to the education sector, we will not be ignorant of the other factors that intertwine with our drive for literacy. Ensuring security and transforming slums to livable communities will also be addressed concurrently. I look forward to unveiling my manifesto which shows a detailed plan for providing quality education for all, and ensuring no child gets left behind.
Our children deserve to have the opportunities to enjoy a healthy childhood and great education. It is their fundamental right.
I have no doubt that we can anticipate a future where improving literacy is not a bargain and we will create an environment that is safe for all to learn both formally and informally.
Frank Nweke Jr
Thank you