GEP3: How UNICEF, FCDO Makes Early Reading Attractive to Pupils in Bauchi State

By Bashir Hassan Abubakar

Towards improving quality basic education in Bauchi State, United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF), with funding from the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) UK, under the Girls’ Education Project 3 (GEP3) had carried out an extensive training of primary school teachers with a view to exposing pupils, especially Girl Child, to early reading.

Recently, UNICEF Bauchi Field office with support from FCDO have put together a media dialogue to keep journalists abreast on how the Girls’ Education Project 3 (GEP3) has fared in Bauchi State.

Part of the activity during the media dialogue was a field visit to schools, to assess the impact of the GEP3 intervention towards improved reading skills of pupils.

According to UNICEF Report, 10 million children in Nigeria — 60 percent of whom are girls — are out of school.

Daily Chronicle observes that, higher percentage of this staggering statistics is mainly from the Northern part of Nigeria, with Bauchi State having close to about 1 million out of school children.

This alarming situation may have triggered UNICEF, with funding from FCDO, and in collaboration with other stakeholders, into supporting Bauchi State government to reversed this depressing trend.

Pupils in class room

Among some of the strategies developed and implemented was the use of psychosocial activities to expose pupils to early reading through a method called “Lets Read”.

Our correspondent visited some of schools and saw (First Hand), how the GEP3 intervention is making the desired impact among the pupils and students.

When Daily Chronicle visited Central Primary Sakwa, in Zaki LGA of Bauchi State, it was observed that teachers were using signs and symbols to teach pupils how to pronounce words. Using  psychosocial approach of sharing banters, jokes and laughter, teachers were able to make reading attractive, and thereby making it user friendly for the pupils.

Journalists and Pupils in a Group Photograph in Sakwa, Zaki LGA, Bauchi State

According to a class teacher in Central Primary School Sakwa, Muhammad Saifulla said the training UNICEF conducted for teachers has exposed him to the new innovation of impacting knowledge in a friendly manner and thereby making it attractive to pupils.

Teacher Saifulla further said that such methods and also, the availability of illustrative text books has greatly improved enrolment and retention of pupils, especially the Girl Child.
“I may not have the exact statistics at the moment, but you have seen with your own eyes that in some of the classes, the number girls are more than that of boys.

Muhammad Saifulla

“This improvement in the enrolment of pupils, especially the Girl Child, can be attributed to this new system of teaching the model of “Lets Read”, using the pupils as role models to their peers that are not enrolled in school and also the activities of the School Based Management Committees that are tirelessly working to sensitize communities on the need to enroll their children and wards into school”, said Saifulla

It is instructive to note that, part of the training conducted by UNICEF for the teachers under the GEP3 also provided basic skills on safety and evacuation measures. Such trainings were also cascaded down to the pupils. This was also simulated by the students of Junior Secondary School Katagum, also in Zaki LGA of Bauchi State.

Some of the Students who demonstrated the safety and evacuation procedures all agreed that, it has become imperative to be security conscious, especially looking at the level of insecurity across the country. They also said that they extended the same safety measures to their respective families and community members at large.

Muhammad Bappah, Vice Principal JSS Katagum

Also speaking on the safety and evacuation procedure measures, the vice principal of the school, Muhammad Bappa said, “With the level of insecurity challenges be-devilling the country, the safety and evacuation procedures that we were trained on by UNICEF and their partners is not only timely but a must-do initiative that is calming the nerves of students, knowing that the entire school environment is security conscious”.

Although, pupils are fast learning early reading as a result of these methods under the GEP3 intervention by UNICEF, with funding from FCDO UK, some challenges are dampening their spirits. Some of these challenges observed by our correspondent include inadequate number of teachers, non availability of basic learning aids like tables/chairs, leaking roofs and parameter fencing .

One of the Facilitator of the Lets Read Initiative in Bauchi State

All respondents interviewed during the field visit were unanimous in their appeal to the Bauchi State Government to increase investment in the basic education sector, which is the early foundation to the path of having the pupils and students, especially the Girl Child reaching their full potentials in life.

Stakeholders are also expressing their hopes that the State government should sustained innovative methods adopted under the GEP3 model, for improved basic education at early grade towards enhancing quality of education in Bauchi State.

SBMC Chairman, Central Primary School Sakwa

This, according to all the respondents, will be a major catalyst that would significantly improve enrolment, retention and completion of basic education of the Girl Child, which will remove Bauchi State from the lists of States with the highest numbers of out of school children.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.