Children Literacy Development and The Book Industry in Nigeria: The Efa 2015 Policy Somersault

Abstract

The paper examines the linkage between Nigeria’s anticipated failure in the Education for All (EFA) 2015 goals and her policy implementation strategies in relation to her literacy industry and socio-demographics. The assessment is premised on the increasing concern for universal literacy, which grew out of the 1990 World Education Conference in Jomtien and the 2000 Dakar World Education Forum. The principal aim is to locate valid evidences that may confirm and explain the expected failure. By way of review and situation analysis, the paper looks at key intervention strategies of the Nigerian government under the Universal Basic Education UBE (formerly Universal Primary Education—UPE) and Nomadic Education policies. The paper then discusses the interface between the literacy industry and literacy policy implementation, where evidences of disconnection between the two is established and brought to bearing with Nigeria’s failure in the 2015 EFA targets. The paper goes further to juxtapose literacy policy implementation with major socio-demographic facts in Nigeria, where additional evidences revealing large scale disagreement between 2015 EFA goals and basic socio-demographic influences in Nigeria are found in support of the thesis of this paper that Nigeria will indeed fail to deliver the 2015 EFA targets, and that the failure is significantly consequent upon poor policy implementation strategy arising from (1) strategic disconnection between her literacy industry and literacy policy implementation and (2) Unsettled socio-demographic influences. Some measures are recommended to reinvigorate Nigeria in the global drive towards EFA beyond 2015.