World Literacy Day - Nigeria sets new world record in reading - Activities marking this year’s International Literacy Day in Nigeria are being drawn to a close, as the country through the Lagos State Government, set a new world record in which the deputy governor, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, reading with 4,506 students broke the Guinness Book of Records for the largest assembly of students being read to by an adult. For 30 minutes, the Deputy Governor and the students from Lagos State Schools read from a book thereby breaking the old record of 30 minutes and 3,650 students hitherto in place.

After reading from a story book titled: “Time changes yesterday” authored by Nkengi Koin, the Deputy Governor challenged the students to cultivate a reading culture and devote a minimum of two hours daily to reading books and educative journals.

A representative of the Guinness Book of Records, Adetunwase Aderenle, who confirmed the new record, said Lagos State will be entering the record books as the new owner of the largest reading audience in the world.

The Deputy Governor said the literacy level in the state had reached 87%, stressing that the effort of the present administration in improving the standard of education was yielding the desired results.

“Presently, we have about 87.8% literacy level. That is not to say that we are satisfied. We are not relaxing at all as we are committed to achieving a 100% literacy rate and as a key aspect of our Ten-Point Agenda, we would continue to place education of our children as a priority which will include the implementation of the Child Rights Law that emphasises “right to education of every child”, the deputy governor said.

The event was part of activities to mark the International Literacy Day. It was put together by the Lagos State Government in partnership with the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and Ecole de Desssin in the commercial city.

The Theme for the commemoration of 2011 International Literacy day was, “Literacy and Peace”. In his message to mark the day, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, said literacy unlocked the capacity of individuals to imagine and create a more fulfilling future.

“The costs are enormous. Illiteracy exacerbates cycles of poverty, ill health and deprivation. It weakens communities and undermines democratic processes through marginalization and exclusion. These and other impacts can combine to destabilize societies”, the UN scribe said in a statement.

He said despite some progress made, illiteracy continued to afflict millions of people especially women and girls. In 2009, roughly two-thirds of the world’s estimated 793 million illiterate adults were female. 

That same year, some 67 million primary-school-aged children and 72 million adolescents were denied their right to education.

Ban Kin-Moon called on the international community to use the occasion to reaffirm their commitment to the goal of ensuring that all people can read and write.

Pana 09/09/2011