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From VOA Learning English, |
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this is the Education Report. |
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Nigeria has one of the world's highest rates of people |
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who can not read or write, |
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but a government agency is taking steps to help |
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more than 400,000 Nigerians in Kano state become literate. |
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The Kano State Agency for Mass Education |
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has set high goals for literacy. |
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The goals may be hard to reach because the adults |
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and young people the agency wants to teach |
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are not attending school. |
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Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike |
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reported on the situation last September. |
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The minister said, the number of illiterate Nigerian adults |
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has increased by 10 million over the past 20 years, |
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the current total is 35 million; |
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the nation also has more than 10 million children |
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who are not in school. |
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To improve that situation, Kano's educational agency |
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has joined with Education for All (EFA), |
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a project of the United Nations |
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Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. |
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Working together, they have launched more than |
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8,074 adult literacy classes in 44 local government councils. |
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The effort is expected to reach about 403,700 people. |
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Success would mean a 90 percent adult literacy level by 2015. |
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The agency says it has 16,000 facilitators |
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to teach and train students, |
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the aim is to extend its reach |
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to all the 44 local government councils in the state. |
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Kano City Women Center is one of |
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many learning centers for young and adult women. |
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It serves 965 students at its school |
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and 145 more women at a vocational or occupational center. |
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The school teaches English, mathematics, geography, |
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biology, chemistry, economics, and other subjects. |
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At the vocational center, |
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women learn how to knit and sew, |
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and make products like soaps and air fresheners. |
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Halima Aminu is 25 years old and a mother of three children. |
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She once left school because of a lack of financial support. |
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She started attending the Kano City Women Center in 2010. |
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Today, she is in her final year |
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at the senior secondary-school level. |
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"When I come to school in the morning I will enter my class, |
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so when I finish learning, taking lectures |
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then I will go back home. |
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I have children, I will teach them |
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and take my exercise-books to revise. |
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So I also help them in doing their homework," said Aminu. |
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Halima Amin hopes to continue her education at the next level |
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and someday become a medical doctor. |
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And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report. |
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I'm Bob Doughty. |