Katsina, UK begin literacy programme for children

Katsina, UK begin Teaching at the Right Level programme for children. CREDIT: Esha Atiku

Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, has reiterated his administration’s commitment to improving learning outcomes, saying enrolling children in school is meaningless if they do not acquire the knowledge and skills needed to build their future.

Radda stated this on Thursday in Katsina while launching the scale-up of the Teaching at the Right Level programme, an initiative designed to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy among children, particularly those whose education has been disrupted.

The programme, supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, is being implemented in Katsina and Zamfara states through an accelerated basic education model targeting formerly out-of-school children and learners who have fallen behind.

The intervention is expected to reach more than 3,800 learners through over 50 learning centres, with more than 100 facilitators participating in the programme.

Speaking at the event, Radda said his administration viewed education as more than simply providing access to classrooms.

“Education is not simply about getting a child into a school. This is only the beginning, but learning is the ultimate objective.

“The child must not only be enrolled, the child must learn. The child must not only attend school, the child must be safe. The teacher must not only be present, but the teacher must be actively supported to teach effectively.

“Our ambition is not only to implement accelerated programmes. Our ambition is to build an education system that can continuously improve, where an approach demonstrates value and produces results,” Radda said.

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Also speaking, the representative of the British High Commission in Nigeria, Ian Attfield, said the programme was designed to help children acquire foundational skills appropriate to their learning levels.

He said the approach was particularly important because children could be enrolled in school without acquiring the skills expected at their grade level.

The Teaching at the Right Level approach assesses children based on what they can actually do and groups them according to their learning levels rather than their age or grade.

The programme then provides targeted instruction to help learners gradually improve their foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

In Katsina and Zamfara, the approach is being integrated into an Accelerated Basic Education Programme for formerly out-of-school children and learners whose education has been interrupted. The intervention also incorporates learner support, safeguarding and inclusive teaching.

A separate multilingual TaRL model is also being piloted in Niger State, using familiar local languages, including Hausa, Nupe and Gbagyi, before supporting learners in transitioning to English.

The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Katsina State Development Management Board, State Universal Basic Education Board, State Agency for Mass Education and the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education.