Japan Govt, UNESCO seek to boost literacy in Gombe
…….100 marginalised girls and women to benefit
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
Abubakar Bappari, Director Gombe State Adult and Non Formal Education Agency (ANFEA), says no fewer than 100 marginalised women and girls would benefit from the collaboration of Japan Government, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Bappari disclosed this on Monday, during the commencement of a two-day step down training for facilitators of Basic Literacy Programme held at Education Resource Centre Gombe, with the theme: ‘Literacy, teaching and learning in the Covid-19 crisis and beyond’.
According to him, The Japan, UNESCO Literacy project is piloted across three states namely; Gombe Bauchi and Delta, adding that learners in Gombe would be taught across 10 centres, with 10 persons benefiting in each of the centres.
He noted that the centres would cater for out of school children from ages 6 – 16years, while the adult ranges from 16 years and above, adding that it would help eradicate illiteracy especially in the era of Covid-19.
“We have three master trainers that are going to train the 10 facilitators and we have 10 centres in Gombe State and 10 learners are expected to be trained across in each centre, making a total of 100.
“The support from Japan government, UNESCO is targeted at three states in Nigeria namely Delta, Bauchi and Gombe, out of 37 states including FCT, the three states were selected based on merit. So the question on what we are doing to help the illiterate attain quality education,” Bappari said.
He added, “This will help eradicate illiteracy in Gombe State, especially for a government that has shown concern in education as you know the governor had declared state of emergency in education to enable the standardization of quality education. With this UNESCO is enforcing about 100 learners across the 10 centres.”
Also speaking, Focal Person Japan, UNESCO project, Nuhu Sulaiman, said the workshop is geared towards enlightening facilitators about Covid-19.
Sulaiman who is also deputy director, Planning, Research and Statistics of Adult and Non Formal Education Agency (ANFEA), stressed that the project was borne out of the challenges faced in learning during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said, “The project came up as a result of the break down in the activity of learning in our centres around 2019 to 2020 because of the Covid-19. So Japan government, UNESCO came in to support the centres particularly the marginalized women and girls to curtail the wide gaps.
“So they brought materials, and modules were developed which is related to Covid-19, so that the lesson will be introduced in our centres and communities and it will help curtail the spread of Covid-19 in their various communities.
According to Sulaiman, “The training will help to erode misconception around formal education because some say there graduates without jobs. So in combating it we have introduced skill acquisition to entice them, so when they come we tell them that they can not be perfect with formal education without literacy ability and this has increased number of learners.”
