The Minister of Education, Prof.Tahir Mamman has said that the most potent way of tackling out-of-school children phenomenal was to give adequate attention to adult education.

Mamman was speaking at a briefing session with the leadership of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non Formal Education in Abuja on Thursday.

He emphasised that educated adults were more prone to educating their children, hence the need to tackle adult illiteracy.

According to him, adult illiterates constitute the fountain from which out-of-school children keep flowing.

“One of the fundamental ways to deal with the ever increasing number of out-of-school children is to educate the parents because an educated parent is more likely to educate his/her child,” he said.

Mamman, however , identified funding, advocacy and commitment as key elements necessary in tackling the menace of adult illiteracy.

The Minister directed the leadership of the National Commission for Mass Literacy to furnish his office with the current number of adult illiterates in the country, their location and strategies for taking them off that shelve.

Aligning with the Mamman, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu emphasised that adequate funding was critical in raising the literacy level of the country.

Sununu, who, wondered why the National Commission for Mass Literacy had been removed from the funding envelope of the annual national budget, promised to take up the matter with his colleagues at the National Assembly.

The Minister of State explained that Commission is not a revenue yielding agency, but the provider of a critical national service that must be giving attention.

Earlier the Director-General, National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non Formal Education, Prof. Simon Akpama said that investment in the adult education subsector has the potential of not only improving the overall literacy level of the country but will also drastically reduce the number of out-of-school children.