Support students, educators with N1.7million
The group under the auspices of Tongston Holdings has blamed the escalating illiteracy rate in northern Nigeria on a lack of education.
The group’s executive director and chief executive officer (CEO), Ing. Bello Mohammed Tongo said this yesterday in the state of Gombe while presenting prizes worth 1.7 million dollars to students and educators at the 1st Festival of Literature, Culture and Northeast creativity.
Noting that the gesture was to further deepen the group’s support for education in northeast Nigeria, Tongo lamented that the northeast has been the hardest hit region in Nigeria, with high levels of insecurity and poverty.
According to the CEO, the Northeast also has the highest illiteracy rates in Nigeria, revealing the lowest being 31.9 percent for men and 14.9 percent for women, both recorded in Yobe.
She said that northeastern states have net primary school attendance rates for women of 47.7 percent, and argued that education deprivation in northern Nigeria is driven by several factors, including economic barriers and norms and Sociocultural practices that discourage attendance at informal education, especially for girls.
He explained: “Therefore, the Northeast Literacy Festival marks an important first step in revitalizing literacy levels in the region. The central objective of the Festival was aligned with Tongston’s core values of personal, economic, socio-cultural and sustainable development. Indeed, Tongston’s core proposition is based on chronic unemployment, underemployment and employability among youth with basic / tertiary education, driven largely by the nature of the education system that does not prepare youth for the world of work, business or government.
“The focus is on developing entrepreneurial thinking skills while integrating media, finance and business to produce entrepreneurs who can drive sustainable socio-economic development in our nation and continent.
“It was on this premise that Tongston pledged his cash support and in-kind prizes worth N300,000 to the students. As part of Tongston’s service offering and the centrality of sustainable development goals as one of its core values. ”
In addition, Tongo revealed that more than N1.3 million in prizes made up of N150,000 in prizes and cash coupons have been awarded to six educators from representative winning educational institutions in the six categories at the primary and secondary level, to access the first Tongston’s Maiden’s Maiden Introductory Entrepreneur Educators (TIEEC) course.