Literacy Day: NAS Pays Fees For 100 Indigent Pupils, Launches Contest

The National Association of Seadogs (NAS) has paid the school fees of 100 indigent pupils and launched an essay competition for secondary school students in the Federal Capital Territory as part of activities marking the 2026 International Literacy Day.

A statement jointly signed by Emeka Macfoy, Capoon of Sahara Deck, Abuja, and Paul Ejiofor of Zero Meridian Deck, United Kingdom, said the initiative targets children from low-income families at LEA Primary School, Dakibiyu, Jabi, with the aim of keeping them in school and off the streets.

The essay competition, themed: “Read, Think, Verify: Building Critical Information Literacy in the Digital Age,” is designed to equip students with skills to question, cross-check and verify information online amid the growing spread of fake news and misinformation. A spelling bee contest for young learners is also part of the programme.

The activities mark the 60th anniversary of UNESCO’s proclamation of International Literacy Day, observed this year under the theme: “Literacy for People, the Planet and Prosperity.” UNESCO estimates that at least 739 million young people and adults globally still lack basic literacy skills.

The organisers said Nigeria faces one of the world’s most severe literacy crises, with UNICEF reporting that more than 18 million children are out of school. A 2024 UNICEF report also found that only about one in four Nigerian children aged seven to 14 possesses basic reading and mathematics skills.

They said the literacy challenge now extends beyond access to education, as the rapid spread of unverified content on social media has made critical reading and information verification increasingly important, particularly among young Nigerians who consume news largely through mobile phones.

“We designed the ‘Read, Think, Verify’ essay competition as our response to that reality,” the Decks said, stressing the need to equip young people with the ability to distinguish credible information from misinformation.

The Sahara and Zero Meridian Decks had previously supported LEA Primary School, Dakibiyu, in September 2025 by paying school fees for indigent pupils, renovating two classrooms and providing furniture and writing materials. The intervention also drew attention to the school’s teacher shortage, with a single teacher reportedly handling all classes.

The latest intervention is part of NAS’s National Back to School Advocacy and Humanitarian Project and its Street Child Project, which has operated for more than a decade as one of the association’s flagship social responsibility initiatives aimed at taking children off the streets and into classrooms.

The Decks called on the FCT Education Secretariat and the Local Education Authority to address teacher and infrastructure gaps in public primary schools, while urging parents, schools, corporate organisations and other stakeholders to support the essay competition, spelling bee and pupils of LEA Primary School, Dakibiyu.