About 285,000 children orphaned by Boko Haram insurgency and children of the vulnerable and those with disabilities have learnt basic literacy and numeracy under the UNICEF’s Teaching at the Right Level initiative in Borno State over the last three years.
The initiative, which covers Borno and Yobe states, is funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office of the British government as a four-year intervention to rescue education from deterioration in Nigeria.
The FCDO, partnership for learning for all in Nigeria and Education Cannot Wait fund the project, which covers 2021 to 2025, with £16 million. UNICEF is the consortium lead of the initiative with Plan Interbational as a consortium partner.
UNICEF said the project, which is currently in it’s third year, “Aim to enhance access to safe, inclusive and high-quality learning,” and “particularly emphasizes reaching children, especially girls and those with disabilities, affected by conflict.”
“Over 50 percent of the benefitting children are orphans whose parents were killed by the Boko Haram insurgents,” Barr. Ngari Alhaji Bukar, the Head Teacher of Mohammed Aji Goni Laminu Primary School in Jere LGA, one of the 140 benefitting schools in Borno State, told newsmen, Tuesday, January 23.
Officials while speaking on the importance of the opportunity said, “The initiative underscores a comprehensive approach to addressing the educational challenges posed by conflict, specifically emphasizing inclusivity and quality learning for vulnerable children.”
Mustapha Shehu, Education Officer, UNICEF Maiduguri Field Office, said “The TaRL pedagogy is learner-friendly and increase enrolment, attendance and retention of pupils at school.”
He said 2800 teachers were trained on the TaRL method of teaching across the three benefitting LGAs of Maiduguri, Jere and Konduga, adding that each teacher handles not more than 50 pupils taught for two hours daily at arranged open spaces outside the normal classroom environment to create newness that facilitates conducive atmosphere for fast learning.
