2.6 Million Lagos Residents Are Illiterate- LASG

NO fewer than 2,671,110 residents in Lagos State are illiterate, the Lagos State Government said on Thursday.

But its literacy level has also shot up to 87 percent, making the state the highest to attain that level ahead of other states in the federation.

Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Education, Mr. Abdul-Fatai Olukoga, who disclosed this at a press conference to flag off this year’s celebration of International Literacy Day in the state, said a recent survey carried out on the 20,546,999 population in the state revealed that 17,875,889 people are literate while 2,671,110 are illiterate.

Olukoga said government has established different programmes spread across the various   Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in other to improve the literacy level in the state.

He explained that the annual celebration was geared towards creating awareness and  ensitization campaign in communities with high percentage of illiteracy rate.

He said government would also organise literacy activities such as reading and writing amongst residence as a measure of scaling up the

literacy level.

The event with the theme ‘Literacy for Peace’, Olukoga said would place special focus on essential relationship between literacy and

peace especially at this period when the country is witnessing a lot of security challenges.

“Lasting peace is founded on respect for human rights and social justice, so literacy is a development accelerator and pre-requisite

for peace to avoid today’s incessant global conflicts”.

He explained that a total of 17,674 residents passed the literacy test in the state between the year 2011 and 2012 at the 466 centres operated by the LG, LCDAs, Non-governmental organisations, faith-based organizations, rotary clubs amongst others.