LEARN- to- read Project: Gombe Partners USAID to Improve Education quality
The Government of Gombe State has reiterated commitment to partner with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the area of provision of quality education to the teaming children in the State.
The State Government and USAID are partnering on the LEARN- to read Project, and targeting children of school age to ensure every child can read and write before reaching primary four.
The position of the Government and USAID was made known by the Deputy Governor Dr. Manassah Daniel Jatau, when he played host to the Chief of Party, USAID Nigeria in his Office.
The Deputy Governor appreciated USAID and all other organisations that have been contributing very much to Gombe State and humanity.
He expressed happiness that the partnership between Gombe State and USAID would yield positive results towards assisting the children of the targeted age know how to read and write.
The Deputy Governor noted that the new development would safe the children the rigour of having to translate English first from their mother tongue, to Hausa and then to English, a process he described as delaying learning .
He cited example of how the chinese, Ethiopians etc have taken advantage of their languages to go farther than the rest of the world, pointing out that this is because memories last longer when learning is done in indigenous languages.
He called on USAID to take advantage of the centrality of Gombe State in the North East by making it their regional capital so as to easily assess the other states in the region.
Jatau informed them that the centrality of Gombe in the North East has resulted in population surge where almost everything is overstretched, calling for more interventions.
He assured the team of Governments support to the project, calling on them to ensure strict supervision for the success of the project.
The Head of USAID’s delegation and Chief of Party in Nigeria Dr. Nurudeen Lawal said, LEARN is an acronym for Leveraging Educational Assistance Resource in Nigeria targeting the little ones in the beneficiary states towards addressing challenges affecting socio-economic development.
He said the project is informed by the fact that ” if every child can read and write,the health, economy, gender issues, and everything in the nation will change for the better. This is because educational development is a critical part in overall development”.
The Chief of Party explained that, their Organisation has been partnering with the state in the area of SENSE (Strengthening Education in North Eastern States) Project through the American University of Nigeria (AUN) and has supported Gombe with technical assistance funded by BESDA.
He said Gombe State has done a great deal in establishing of Model Schools Teacher Training Centre that cannot be found anywhere in the country which was one of the reasons it was chosen for the project, expressing hope that it is going to do better than the other states in the country.
He noted that, the world over development is better achieved when people do things in their mother tongue and children learn better in their mother tongue which according to him explains why children are the target.
The team was led into the Deputy Governor’s Office by the Commissioner, Ministry for Higher Education, Hon. Dauda Maaji Batari Zambukk.
They were presented with the copies of Gombe Ten Year Development plan and the three years scorecard of the administration of Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya ( the first Dan Maje of Gombe).
Jack Tasha
Senior Special Assistant (SSA) Media and Publicity to the Governor,
(Deputy Governor’s Office)
