Yobe State Universal Basic Education Board has adopted the Early Grade Reading Model developed by the USAID’s Northern Education Initiative Plus for the implementation of the World 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 were produced and distributed free of charge to public schools in Bauchi and Sokoto states, is meant to ensure that pupils in primary 1-3 are able to read in both Hausa and English languages.
Yobe alongside 16 other northern states are benefitting from the World Bank’s $600 million loan for the implementation 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 literacy and numeracy.
This came to the fore in Bauchi, at a 5 day master trainers workshop on the Let’s Read and Mu Karanta textbooks organized by the Yobe State Universal Basic Education Board, as part of processes for the implementation of the BESDA programme.
Yobe state coordinator of BESDA and chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board said the decision to adopt the NEI Plus’s model was because, “the textbooks developed by the project have been tested and found to be working very well in Bauchi and Sokoto state”.
Represented by the BESDA Focal person in the state Alhaji Sama’ila Balumi, the coordinator commended NEI 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 of school children and teaching the Almajiri children skills in literacy and numeracy 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 Northern Education Initiative Plus to help support the BESDA, states and the basic education services delivery to reach the children through the purchase of textbook, teacher training and teacher supervision training”.
Jordene Hale however advised the states to start committing more time for children in schools, as according to her “the children are not getting the thousand hours per year in order to learn” based on UNESCO’s recommendation.
Bauchi state Team Lead of the NEI Plus Mustapha Ahmed expressed worry that, unlikely during their time most children in public schools cannot read and write these days, even in their mother tongue.
