Adamawa And Gombe Benefit From USAID’s 5.2 Million Storybooks

<p><em>Adamawa and Gombe gain<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the U&period;S&period; Agency for International Development &lpar;USAID&rpar; has supported the distribution of supplementary Hausa reading materials – Ina Son Karatu&excl; &lpar;I Want to Read&excl; in Hausa&rpar; – to 157&comma;000 primary grade learners in Adamawa and Gombe states&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The USAID Strengthening Education in Northeast Nigeria &lpar;SENSE&rpar; activity&comma; implemented by the American University of Nigeria &lpar;AUN&rpar;&comma; developed the packages for the two states&comma; which contain more than 5&period;2 million copies of educational reading material produced with USAID’s evidence-based early grade reading methodology using global best practices&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Through years of conflict&comma; education in the northeast has been decimated&comma;” USAID Mission Director Anne Patterson said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Working with AUN&comma; we are helping to rebuild the system by providing materials that employ evidence-based methods to start thousands of children off on a lifetime of reading&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;At ceremonies in Gombe on May 26 and Yola on May 19&comma; each learner received a take-home booklet that contains up to 30 different stories and books at varying levels designed to help them advance their reading competence over a whole academic year&period; SENSE has encouraged parents to ask their children to read the stories to them after school to further improve their reading proficiency&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Over three years&comma; SENSE will reach more than 200&comma;000 learners&comma; and train and provide teaching materials to 5&comma;000 teachers to improve reading in the Hausa language&period; SENSE helps enable the education systems in Gombe and Adamawa to deliver accessible high-quality education that responds to the needs of all children&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The SENSE approach to encouraging reading is supported by research on effective methods of teaching reading in the early grades&period; A USAID-supported study by the American Institutes for Research identifies that the availability of plentiful reading materials in different forms relevant to the reader’s background&comma; language&comma; and interests for independent reading results in significantly higher results&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The SENSE activity has also trained and supplied teachers and learners with Mu Karanta&excl; Hausa teaching and learning materials developed under its sister USAID <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;guardian&period;ng&sol;">Northern Education<&sol;a> &lpar;NEI&rpar; Plus activity&comma; and the Reading and Numeracy Activity funded by UNICEF&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;