{"id":247031,"date":"2016-09-09T12:02:50","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T12:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=247031"},"modified":"2016-09-09T12:02:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T12:02:50","slug":"presidential-aspirants-must-explain-how-theyd-combat-illiteracy-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/09\/presidential-aspirants-must-explain-how-theyd-combat-illiteracy-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential aspirants must explain how they’d combat illiteracy [Article]"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fifty years ago, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared 8th September \u2018International Literacy Day\u2019 with the goal \u201cto actively mobilize the international community and to promote literacy as an instrument to empower individuals, communities, and societies.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1991, the Non Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education was established with the mandate to eradicate illiteracy in Ghana by the year 2015.<\/p>\n
After almost a quarter of a century, the NFED has been utterly unable to craft a coherent national policy to guide achievement of this goal.<\/p>\n
NFED has failed<\/strong><\/p>\n As Ghana joins the world to celebrate this all important day which is under the theme: \u201cLiteracy and sustainable development,\u201d I dare say that NFED\u2019s failure to achieve the objectives for which it was established is completely unacceptable.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that Ghana\u2019s literacy levels continue to be disputed by researchers (who consider government statistics to be inflated and exaggerated, containing a sizeable number of functional illiterates), one thing is certainly clear: Ghana’s literacy rate continues to fall way below the global average level of 84 percent.<\/p>\n Teaching approach<\/strong><\/p>\n Certainly, change won\u2019t be easy. There is no simple solution. But clear guidance must be given. For example, our country’s traditional process of learning is currently embroiled in critical dispute among many researchers, some of whom have made a strong case for young learners first having a firm grasp of their mother tongue before learning a second language.<\/p>\n