Northern Nigeria Launches Massive Literacy Campaign

尼日利亚北部开展大规模扫盲运动

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

Nigeria has one of the world's highest rates of people who can not read or write, but a government agency is taking steps to help more than 400,000 Nigerians in Kano state become literate.

尼日利亚拥有全球最高的文盲比例，但一家政府机构正在采取措施，帮助卡诺州的40多万人识字。

The Kano State Agency for Mass Education has set high goals for literacy. The goals may be hard to reach because the adults and young people the agency wants to teach are not attending school.

卡诺州大众教育机构对读写能力设立了高目标。该目标可能难以实现，因为该机构想要教的成年人及青少年都没有上学。

Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike reported on the situation last September. The minister said, the number of illiterate Nigerian adults has increased by 10 million over the past 20 years, the current total is 35 million; the nation also has more than 10 million children who are not in school.

尼日利亚教育部长尼斯姆·瓦克(Nyesom Wike)去年九月汇报了情况。他表示，过去20年，尼日利亚成人文盲的人数增加了1千万，总数达到3500万。此外该国还有1千多万儿童没有上学。

To improve that situation, Kano's educational agency has joined with Education for All (EFA), a project of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

为了改善这种状况，卡诺州的教育机构加入了联合国教科文组织的全民教育项目（简称EFA）。

Working together, they have launched more than 8,074 adult literacy classes in 44 local government councils. The effort is expected to reach about 403,700 people. Success would mean a 90 percent adult literacy level by 2015.

通过共同努力，他们在44个地方政府机构推出了8074个成人识字班。预计这项努力将覆盖403700人。如果圆满成功意味着到2015年尼日利亚的成人识字率将达到90%。

The agency says it has 16,000 facilitators to teach and train students, the aim is to extend its reach to all the 44 local government councils in the state.

该机构表示，它有16000名辅导员来教育和培训学生，其目标是扩大其覆盖面至该州所有44家地方政府机构。

Kano City Women Center is one of many learning centers for young and adult women. It serves 965 students at its school and 145 more women at a vocational or occupational center.

卡诺州都市女性中心是众多中青年女性学习中心之一。其旗下学校招收了965名学生，职教中心招收了超过145名妇女。

The school teaches English, mathematics, geography, biology, chemistry, economics, and other subjects. At the vocational center, women learn how to knit and sew, and make products like soaps and air fresheners.

这所学校教授英语、数学、地理、生物，化学、经济学和其他科目。而在职教中心，妇女们学习如何编织及缝合，以及制造肥皂和空气清新剂等产品。

Halima Aminu is 25 years old and a mother of three children. She once left school because of a lack of financial support. She started attending the Kano City Women Center in 2010. Today, she is in her final year at the senior secondary-school level.

哈利玛·阿米努（Halima Aminu）是一位有着三个孩子的25岁的妈妈。她曾经因为缺乏经济支持而辍学。2010年她开始就读卡诺州都市女性中心。如今是她高中教育的最后一年。

"When I come to school in the morning I will enter my class, so when I finish learning, taking lectures, then I will go back home. I have children, I will teach them and take my exercise-books to revise. So I also help them in doing their homework," said Aminu.

她说，“当我早上来到学校，我会进入我的班级。当我上完课我就会回家。我有孩子，我会教她们，修改自己的作业，我也会帮助他们做功课。”

Halima Amin hopes to continue her education at the next level and someday become a medical doctor.

阿米努希望继续进入下一阶段的学习，并且有一天能够成为一名医生。

And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report.I'm Bob Doughty.