By Dayo Adesulu
Lafarge Africa Plc, one of the leading cement and building solutions provider, has received the endorsement of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) for its nationwide education intervention, the Lafarge Africa National Literacy Competition (LANLC).
UBEC is a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education in charge of Basic Education across the country. This endorsement is in recognition of the remarkable contribution of the initiative to the development of literacy in the country’s primary schools. Lafarge’s National Literacy Competition is an intervention in Nigeria’s education sector in line with the company’s ambitious sustainability strategy which especially complements the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education.
The intervention kicked off with a National Planning Meeting where State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) representatives from all 36 states and the FCT contributed by providing insights for the 5th LANLC. The theme for this year’s competition is “Bridging the Literacy Gap Together.” The Director of Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development, Mrs. Folashade Ambrose-Medebem said the company’s understanding of the key role education plays in the development of any society, inspired the need to engage the leaders of tomorrow on critical literacy skills at an early stage. She said the Lafarge National Literacy Competition is part of the company’s overall sustainable development strategy hinged on 4 pillars – Climate, Circular Economy, Water and Nature and People & Communities.
The literacy competition finds expression in the People & Communities pillar. As part of activities to mark the recent International Literacy Day, Lafarge employees organized a book reading and painting session for 50 young children drawn from public and private primary schools. Commenting on the company’s commitment to literacy, For the past four years, Lafarge Africa Plc has organized the National Literacy Competition to “Bridge the Literacy Gap” and support government efforts in raising the standard of literacy among pupils in public primary schools between the ages of 9 and 13 years.
Since the inception of the competition, over 500,000 primary school pupils in 886 schools across 544 local government areas (LGAs) have been impacted. Currently, public primary schools across the 109 senatorial districts are being coached in reading and writing in preparation for the competition; progress made as a result of this intervention will be evaluated and state run-offs to select the representatives from each state will begin across the country from September 17 – 27, 2018.
The competition is organized in partnership with the respective State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB) in all thirty-six (36) states of Nigeria and the FCT with the support of Ovie Brume Foundation.
The regional run-offs will hold across all six geopolitical zones of the country in Abuja, Enugu, Cross River, Ogun, Kano and Gombe in October.The grand finale of the 5th LANLC will hold on November 15, 2018 in Lagos.
