The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education (NMEC), said recently that 35 per cent of the nation's adult population was illiterate, and it had remained high because efforts being made to address the situation has never yielded the expected result. Considering the funds and efforts that the country has devoted to various mass literacy programmes, including the Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme that was launched with fanfare about 33 years ago in 1976, it is indeed worrisome that as high as 33 per cent of the nation's population is still wallowing in illiteracy
According to NMEC, literacy rate is the percentage of people from the age of 15 and above who can read and write simple statements in their everyday life. NMEC therefore considers it 'shameful' that in the 21st century, a country could have that large number of illiterates. More worrisome is that the authorities are not doing enough to address the situation. Yet Nigeria's literacy figures do not give cause for cheer when juxtaposed with literacy figures of other countries, and the importance of education as the engine for national development. Literacy rates in countries like Cuba, Poland, and Estonia are as high as 99.8 per cent, while Barbados, Latvia and Slovenia have attained 99.7 per cent, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report (2007/2008). That report put Nigeria's literacy rate at 69.1 per cent.