From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
The Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) programme, yesterday handed over more than 280,000 learning materials for primary one and primary two pupils in Kaduna State.
Mr Salim Sadiq, PLANE’s Senior Technical Advisor, said at the event at Kaduna State Universal Basic Board office that the gesture was to improve learning outcomes in primary schools.
Sadiq added that the support was under output 1 Component of the programme which focuses on foundational skills.
He said that materials were developed and reviewed by education stakeholders in the three intervening states of Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa.
“In line with the PLANE’s mandate to improve learning outcomes in primary schools, a total of 280,000 foundational skills materials were produced.
“The material would be distributed to the 728 primary schools in six intervention local government areas, namely Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Sanga, Jaba, Soba and Sabon Gari,” he said.
PLANE Team Lead in the state, Ms Diana Agabi, explained that the learning materials comprises primary one and primary two Hausa literacy and mathematics foundational books, teachers’ guide, literacy story anthology, and posters.
She said that the materials were being distributed simultaneously across the six local government areas for onward distribution to schools to ensure timely usage since academic activities had resumed.
“Every pupil in each of the benefiting schools is expected to have the learning materials while the teachers will have the teacher’s guide to deliver on the content of the materials.
“The teachers have already been trained on how to use the materials to impact positively on the learning outcome of the pupils,” she said.
Receiving the learning materials, Dr Haliru Soba, thanked PLANE for the support, which he described as “very critical” to quality teaching and learning at the foundational level.
Soba pointed out that it was very unlikely to build anything meaningful on a defective foundation, stressing that the major causes of learning poverty was inadequate foundational skills.
According to him, inadequate skills among the pupils at foundation level will create a situation where the children of up to 10 years will not be able to read and write.
“That is absolute learning poverty, but once we address the foundational skill issues, our pupils would be able to read and write especially in their mother tongue.
“This will build a solid foundation that would enable the pupils to navigate through the entire basic education level with ease.”
He said that the government would deploy an effective monitoring system to ensure that the materials were put to use, adding that the government would enforce stringent penalties for earring teachers.
He said that through different interventions, the government was able to reduce the gender parity index in primary schools, reduce the average distance from community to schools, and increase enrollment.
