Yobe State UniversalBasic Education Board has adopted the Early Grade Reading Model developed bythe USAID’s Northern Education Initiative Plus for the implementation of theWorld Bank supported Better Education Services Delivery For All BESDA project.
The NEI Plus’s Early
Grade Reading Model, under which “Let’s Read and Mu Karanta” textbooks wereproduced and distributed free of charge to public schools in Bauchi and Sokotostates, is meant to ensure that pupils in primary 1-3 are able to read in bothHausa and English languages.Yobe alongside 16 other
northern states are benefitting from the World Bank’s $600 million loan for theimplementation of the Better Education Services Delivery For All programme(BESDA), which like the NEI Plus is also designed to promote early childhood reading,reduce out of school children and teach the Almajiri children basic literacyand numeracy.This came to the forein Bauchi, at a 5 day master trainers workshop on the Let’s Read and Mu Karantatextbooks organized by the Yobe State Universal Basic Education Board, as partof processes for the implementation of the BESDA programme.
Yobe state coordinatorof BESDA and chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board said thedecision to adopt the NEI Plus’s model was because, “the textbooks developed bythe project have been tested and found to be working very well in Bauchi andSokoto state”.
Represented by theBESDA Focal person in the state Alhaji Sama’ila Balumi, the coordinator commendedNEI Plus for its technical and material assistance Yobe state.
Earlier, the BESDA Focal Person under whose auspices the workshop was convened Alhaji Sama’ila Balumi said the master trainers are being trained to immediately step down the knowledge to teachers across public schools in 10 selected local government areas where the BESDA programme is being implemented.
He explained that the programme is aimed at promoting
early grade reading among primary 1-3 pupils, reducing the incidences of out ofschool children and teaching the Almajiri children skills in literacy andnumeracy through the use of non-formal learning centres.The chief of Party NEI Plus Programme Jordene Hale said the adoption of the Early Grade Reading Model by Yobe state is an indication that the intervention is impacting positively on the educational development of northern Nigeria.
In her words “the USAID is implementing the NorthernEducation Initiative Plus to help support the BESDA, states and the basiceducation services delivery to reach the children through the purchase oftextbook, teacher training and teacher supervision training”.
Jordene Hale however advised the states to startcommitting more time for children in schools, as according to her “the childrenare not getting the thousand hours per year in order to learn” based on UNESCO’srecommendation.
Bauchi state Team Lead of the NEI Plus MustaphaAhmed expressed worry that, unlikely during their time most children in publicschools cannot read and write these days, even in their mother tongue.
