Gombe, UNICEF move to boost literacy, numeracy skills in primary schools

Gombe, UNICEF move to boost literacy, numeracy skills in primary schools

By William Attah, Gombe

The Gombe State Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has commenced a programme aimed at improving the foundational literacy and numeracy levels of pupils in primary schools.

A recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) report shows that 25 percent, that is, only one in every four Nigerian children in primary four, five and six can read a text or solve a simple arithmetic and a chunk of these problems are from Northern Nigeria.

To this effect, the Commissioner of Education in Gombe State, Northeast Nigeria, Dr. Aishatu Maigari, said UNICEF is coming in to support the State in addressing what she described as, the learning crises.

Speaking to Journalists at the commencement of a one day stakeholders engagement on Foundational Literacy Numeracy (FLN), by the Gombe State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in collaboration with UNICEF, Dr Maigari said, “We have seen the statistics and it is a learning crises. Children are going to school but they are not able to read and learn”.

She said, “the data shows that one in three children are not going to school, meaning that they are out of school (nationally) and the three out of four children going to school are not able to learn, read and do simple arithmetic.

“Most of these come from rural areas and poor economic classes”, adding however that, “in Gombe State, we want to make sure that no child is left behind in terms of quality and equity.”

Aligning and proffering solutions, to the challenges, UNICEF Education Specialist, Bauchi Field Office, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ado, said a multi sectoral approach is expected to be implemented if great improvement must be achieved.

He attributed the problem to be coming from the side of the teachers, school management (operators) and inadequate teaching and learning materials.

He said, “we must give consideration to the teachers, school environment by making sure the school is safe, and making sure the teachers are doing the right thing as well as ensuring adequate and proper monitoring of teachers in schools”.

Abdulrahman also hinted that, “we want to bring the teachers to the speed which the world is going. Go along with the changing world, improvise different strategies and methodologies on how to improve the learning of the children.

“It’s not going to be business as usual because it will be teaching at the right level. It is not going to be a situation whereby a teacher will go into class without necessarily taking into consideration wether the children have understood the concept or not.

“Teaching at the right level entails that the first thing the teacher will do is to conduct an assessment of the children. Another thing is that the capacity development of the teachers is a continuous programme.

“Before this meeting, we engaged teachers in an intensive fourteen (14) days training to build their capacity with the aim of improving their skills and in turn improve the learning of the children”, he stressed.

Also present at the stakeholders engagement were the State House of Assembly Chairmen on education and appropriation. This is to ensure that key interventions are made to ensure that the State Government scale up these programmes to improve the learning outcomes for all the school age children.