USAID, AUN host reading competition in Hausa
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with American University of Nigeria (AUN), have organised reading competition for primary 1,2,3 students under the Strengthening Education in North East (SENSE) in Gombe.
According to Dr. Ishiyaku Bapayo, Gombe team lead of SENSE, the overall desire of the the project is to improve the dwindling reading culture among primary school students using the native language.
He said the project is across the 11 LGA’s of the state and the competition was held in all the primary schools, adding that the competition commenced with interclass, to inter Local Government, Zonal and the finals where representatives across the zones are involved.
The 4 competing LGAs are; Funakaye and Gombe LGAs represented Gombe north, Yalmatu Deba for Gombe Central while Shongom represented Gombe South in the competition.
Bapayo said, “The occasion has an ultimate goal of improving reading skills of our pupils. The Strengthening Education in North East Nigeria has been in Gombe since 2019 till date. Basically, they are here with the objective of improving reading skills of from grade level 1, 2 and 3.
“They were provided with teaching and learning materials together with their teachers and they have been trained in professional development on how to use and engage the materials provided for them.
“To further improve the reading skills of these pupils the SENSE project deems it fit to work with State Universal Basic Education Board to organise this competition for pupils at the lower primary school to compete so that we can measure what exactly we are intervening in across the 11 LGA’s of Gombe.”
However, State project team lead, Dr. Bapayo, also offered scholarship to the most outstanding reader from primary 2 to the University.
Also, Chief of Party, Dr. Audu Liman, in a statement said “The American University of Nigeria has been implementing the SENSE project since 2019 with the objective of improving reading skills for two hundred thousand (200,000) children across Adamawa and Gombe states.”
Also speaking, Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Yahaya, congratulated the participating schools across the LGA’s.
Represented by Commissioner for Higher Education, Hon. Lauco Meshack, the governor lauded representatives of Gombe LGA for their prompt arrival.
He said, “Whoever does something what commendation should be commended openly and not in secret.I want to commend those who took charge of Gombe LGA, I’m commending them not because Gombe is the headquarters of the state but because when I came in as a representative of my leader who is a respecter time, I met them already seated. On this note, on behalf of the people and government of Gombe state, I want to declare the final reading competition open.”
On her part, School Improvement Officer, Hosanna Lazarus lauded the efforts of Atiku Abubakar for the initiative and Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Yahaya for embracing the project.
“They competed at the inter-school level, from there to inter- local government and today we are here at the state level. We are not just competing we want to bring back the reading culture, we want to have a better learning outcome
“I want to appreciate the father of the soil, the former Vice President of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar, who saw the vision to bring about the AUN, which gave birth to what we are seeing today. We also want to thank our state governor Alh. Inuwa Yahaya for embracing the project for giving Education a top priority in Gombe State, as well as our schools support officers who worked tirelessly to see that we witness the final competition.
“We want to thank the Ministry of Education and SUBEB for embracing the SENSE project as their project. It is their own project because SENSE will soon come and go. So it is left for them to replicate this project,” Lazarus added.
