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X-Posted from "Hausa language, literature and culture" <H-HAUSA@H-NET.MSU.EDU> From: John Philips <philips@mail.h-net.msu.edu> ----------------- Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 09:36:35 +0900 From: John Philips <philips@cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp> Subject: January 26, 2004 _This Day_ (Lagos) Posted to the web January 26, 2004 Chuka Odittah Owerri The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has rated Nigeria among the nine countries with the highest rate of illiteracy in the World. [Editor's note: The article does not say how literacy was measured, whether it was in the official language or mother tongue, or whether it counted any script. Does anyone have more information on this? -JP] ____________ JOHN EDWARD PHILIPS <http://human.cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/philips/> Buy my last edited volume: _Slave Elites in the Middle East and Africa_ <http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/071030/0710306601.HTM> Wannan wasik'ar i-mel ce daga H-Hausa, inda za'a cigaba da hira game da harshe da al'adu da tarihi da sauran lamura na Hausawa da mak'wabtansu. -------- REPLY Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 08:07:51 +0100 From: "Don Osborn" <dzo@bisharat.net> John, A couple of quick reactions. First, I'd be surprised if Nigeria is higher (er, lower) than Niger. I checked the UNESCO site quickly but didn't see a ref. to this. Second, re measures of literacy, you bring up a question that I've been wondering about for a while, too, but have never gotten a good answer on. A forum in which I've raised this issue is Multilingual_Literacy, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Multilingual_Literacy . I would actually think that "literacy" (i.e., % literate) would have a more complex index in multilingual societies, esp. where more than one script is used. Don Osborn
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