| [00:00.10] |
From VOA Learning English, |
| [00:02.33] |
this is the Education Report. |
| [00:04.99] |
Nigeria has one of the world's highest rates of people |
| [00:09.59] |
who can not read or write, |
| [00:11.96] |
but a government agency is taking steps to help |
| [00:16.66] |
more than 400,000 Nigerians in Kano state become literate. |
| [00:22.71] |
The Kano State Agency for Mass Education |
| [00:27.17] |
has set high goals for literacy. |
| [00:30.51] |
The goals may be hard to reach because the adults |
| [00:34.99] |
and young people the agency wants to teach |
| [00:38.45] |
are not attending school. |
| [00:41.10] |
Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike |
| [00:46.21] |
reported on the situation last September. |
| [00:49.67] |
The minister said, the number of illiterate Nigerian adults |
| [00:55.08] |
has increased by 10 million over the past 20 years, |
| [01:00.69] |
the current total is 35 million; |
| [01:04.39] |
the nation also has more than 10 million children |
| [01:08.85] |
who are not in school. |
| [01:11.56] |
To improve that situation, Kano's educational agency |
| [01:17.01] |
has joined with Education for All (EFA), |
| [01:20.28] |
a project of the United Nations |
| [01:23.28] |
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. |
| [01:28.75] |
Working together, they have launched more than |
| [01:33.65] |
8,074 adult literacy classes in 44 local government councils. |
| [01:42.21] |
The effort is expected to reach about 403,700 people. |
| [01:49.02] |
Success would mean a 90 percent adult literacy level by 2015. |
| [01:56.70] |
The agency says it has 16,000 facilitators |
| [02:02.10] |
to teach and train students, |
| [02:04.87] |
the aim is to extend its reach |
| [02:08.32] |
to all the 44 local government councils in the state. |
| [02:13.39] |
Kano City Women Center is one of |
| [02:17.04] |
many learning centers for young and adult women. |
| [02:21.19] |
It serves 965 students at its school |
| [02:25.85] |
and 145 more women at a vocational or occupational center. |
| [02:33.61] |
The school teaches English, mathematics, geography, |
| [02:39.32] |
biology, chemistry, economics, and other subjects. |
| [02:44.58] |
At the vocational center, |
| [02:47.23] |
women learn how to knit and sew, |
| [02:50.34] |
and make products like soaps and air fresheners. |
| [02:54.41] |
Halima Aminu is 25 years old and a mother of three children. |
| [03:01.16] |
She once left school because of a lack of financial support. |
| [03:06.44] |
She started attending the Kano City Women Center in 2010. |
| [03:12.81] |
Today, she is in her final year |
| [03:16.43] |
at the senior secondary-school level. |
| [03:19.54] |
"When I come to school in the morning I will enter my class, |
| [03:23.81] |
so when I finish learning, taking lectures |
| [03:28.13] |
then I will go back home. |
| [03:29.68] |
I have children, I will teach them |
| [03:33.04] |
and take my exercise-books to revise. |
| [03:36.40] |
So I also help them in doing their homework," said Aminu. |
| [03:39.80] |
Halima Amin hopes to continue her education at the next level |
| [03:44.86] |
and someday become a medical doctor. |
| [03:48.58] |
And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report. |
| [03:54.40] |
I'm Bob Doughty. |
