Examining the Place of Adult Education in Nigeria’s Digital Literacy Policies

Abstract

In an attempt to unravel the recognition given to Adult Education (AE) in Nigeria’s digital literacy policies, this work took a deep look into three vital or legal national documents – the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), the National Policy on Education (2013), and the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education (NMEC) Act (1990) – to reveal their positions or provisions on AE. However, the major task was to trawl through four policy documents, namely, the National Digital Learning Policy (2023), the National Digital Literacy Framework (2023), the National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy (2012), and the National Policy on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education (2019) to establish if appreciable provisions or considerations are given to AE. While the vital or legal documents truly serve as the primary sources of existence for AE based on their relevant provisions, the four digital literacy policies examined, although they have substantial provisions for education at various levels, they have no clear-cut or sufficient provisions for Adult Education. It was also revealed that there was no proper coordination or collaboration among the federal ministries in formulating digital literacy policies. This paper recommendation recommended adequate, clear and comprehensive provisions for AE in future or revised digital literacy policies; federal ministries and agencies should work towards a harmonised version of digital literacy policy documents; and the federal government should rather partner or collaborate with the state governments to formulate and implement nation-wide initiatives to ensure such programmes reach the target or grass-root beneficiaries and the impacts are felt bottom-up.