(FLOWERBUD NEWS) Kaduna, Aug. 24, 2019 (NAN) Kaduna State Government said on Saturday that it would train 6,828 Primary One teachers on how to improve literacy and numeracy among primary one pupils in public primary schools.
Malam Habib Alhassan, Acting Director, School Inspection and Monitoring, Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
Alhassan said the training would be conducted under the World Bank-supported Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) designed to improve enrolment and learning outcomes in public schools.
He said the process had begun with the selection of 321 master trainers and teacher facilitators for Reading and Numeracy Activities (RANA).
He added that the RANA initiative would be carried out across the over 4,226 primary schools in the state under Result Area Two of the BESDA programme, which sought to improve literacy.
He explained that the master trainers and the teacher facilitators would train the 6,828 primary one teachers and monitor their performance and efficiency in improving literacy among primary one pupils.
“We have received over 500 applications from Federal College of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, Ministry of Education, SUBEB and others from Local Government Education Authorities.
“We are currently conducting examination and interview for the selection and appointment of the 321 master trainers and teacher facilitators out of over 500 applicants.
“After the selection exercise, 107 will be appointed as Master Trainers and 214 as Teacher Facilitators.
“Hopefully by next week, the master trainers will be trained, who would then train the 214 teacher facilitators.
“The teacher facilitators will then step down the training to the 6,828 primary one teachers in the state,” he said.
The director added that the master trainers and teacher facilitators would closely monitor teachers’ delivery in classrooms to ensure improved literacy, including the use of Hausa language.
The director explained that the board had begun mobilisation of 2,000 influencers across relevant stakeholders for massive enrolment campaign to enroll about 145,000 out-of-school children by end of the year.
He said the enrolment campaign was the Result Area One of the BESDA programme that focused on increasing access to equitable and quality education for the 727,764 out-of-school children in the state.
“The Result Area Two will then ensure that after the successful enrolment of the out-of-school children, the teachers are well equipped to teach the children how to read, write and manipulate numbers and figures.
“We will then follow the teachers to the classrooms and monitor their activities to ensure that the expected result of improved learning outcome is achieved,” alhassan said.
NAN reports that the Federal Government had in 2018 secured a 611 million dollars World Bank grant for the BESDA programme in 17 states with highest number of out-of-school children.
The programme was to support the Universal Basic Education Commission in addressing Pillar One of the Ministerial Strategic Plan that seeks to address the problem of out-of-school children in the country.
The specific objectives are to increase equitable access to education for out-of-school children, improve literacy in focus states and strengthen accountability for results through system strengthening. (NAN)
