Flag off ceremony for distribution of Hausa language supplementary Readers to 80,000 learners in primary 1, 2 and 3 in Adamawa state

Implemented by the American University of Nigeria (AUN), the Strengthening Education in North-East Nigeria (SENSE) project is three years $10 million education project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is targeting over 250,000 learners and 5000 Teachers in Adamawa and Gombe states. The project approach is to develop and strengthen the education system to enable it to deliver access to high-quality education options that respond to the needs of all children without burdening it with additional cost that will result if parallel systems are created. The project started in March 2019 and has so far reached and trained over 7000 teachers and well above its target of 200,000 learners with
teaching and learning materials to improve reading in the Hausa language.

Our approach to encouraging reading is supported by research on what promotes reading in early grade. A report produced by Educational Quality Improvement Program 1 (EQUIP1) with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), identifies the following as important elements of the early grade reading (EGR) program:

• Availability of a variety of quality reading materials in different forms and genres for independent reading 
• The reading materials are plentiful. 
• The reading materials are of quality relative to learner background, language, interests, and instructional needs
 
To date the USAID funded SENSE project implemented by the American University of Nigeria has supplied:

1. One million and two thousand five hundred Hausa Readers to 253,000 learners across 335 primary schools in Adamawa and Gombe states
2. Four hundred and fifty-three thousand and forty-two (453,042) teaching and learning materials to learners and teachers. These materials include textbooks, workbooks and writing materials.

Today are providing an additional 80,000 readers to learners in Adamawa state