The foundation of education at the basic level is the to pay attention to the development of our literacy and numeracy skills.

The need for the development of such skills is necessary to ensure that right from the basic level, children of school-going age are adequately prepared to develop their reading as well as mathematical skills.

Literacy skills include the development of children’s aptitude test towards the development of word formation and reading skills. Such reading skills are what result in high-level competence in the ability of people to read and write satisfactorily.

Many of our children are unable to read very well because right from the beginning many of them are not introduced to reading and literacy skills.

Usually, children who develop their skills at an early stage regarding reading are able to perform creditably well when given the chance to develop their creative skills in reading.

As has been stated already, apart from reading or literacy skills, there is the need for children to develop their creative skills in numeracy and basic calculations.

The development of such numeracy skills is what helps the children to be quantitative-oriented, meaning that it helps them to go about their calculations with ease. If quantitative and numeracy skills are encouraged, it helps the children to embrace mathematics as they climb in the educational ladder.

Thus, both numeracy and literacy skills serve as foundation block upon which reading and comprehension as well as mathematics skills can be developed and used in reading and calculations as students go through the educational system.

These days, it is easy to come across many people who have finished school at various levels yet are not able to express themselves well in the official language of instructions: English Language.

In the same way, some of them have developed phobia or fear for mathematics simply because right from the beginning their literacy and numeracy skills had not been developed in the way expected.

If the country’s educational system is to be given a sound foundation for rapid socio-economic development, then we need to pay greater attention to the foundations that help to build up fundamental skills in literacy and numeracy.

Indeed, all academic work and professions as well as acquisition of knowledge in schools are greatly linked to the foundations acquired with regard to the development of our mathematical and reading skills.

The implication of this is that, we need to lay a good foundation for children of school-going age, so that the skills they develop in these areas will be used in enhancing their reading abilities.

The Spectator is aware that the Ministry of Education is working hard to bring reforms in the educational sector. We welcome such bold and necessary measures, so that children in our educational institutions will be able to perform better as far as acquisition of academic and professional knowledge, critical thinking skills and creativity in general are concerned.

We wish the educational sector well and encourage all educationists, students and academic institutions to do their best and collaborate with one another in the interest of the nation.