On Friday, 19th February 2021, the Strengthening Education in North-East Nigeria States (SENSE). The activity led by the Chief of Party, Dr Audu Liman, hosted a special reading event for over 150 students at Bomala Primary School in the Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State, to mark the celebration of International Mother Language Day.
International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is celebrated all over the world on 21st February every year. The theme of the 2021 International Mother Language Day is “Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society.” And the attention this year is on the role languages and multilingualism can play in advancing inclusivity in education and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SENSE Activity joined the world to mark this day last Friday, by inviting parents and community leaders into the classrooms to read stories from the Hausa early grade supplementary readers provided by the SENSE Activity. The event was a special surprise for the children who normally read their supplementary readers every Friday as part of SENSE’s ‘Supplementary Reader Fridays” where reading activities are led by their teachers. By inviting parents into the classrooms, the SENSE Activity hopes to encourage parents and community leaders to support early grade reading in the learners’ home language to improve reading outcomes.
The SENSE Activity is a USAID-funded early grade reading intervention implemented by the American University Nigeria across Adamawa and Gombe states. The goal of the intervention is to improve literacy outcomes for 200,000 children across primary 1 – 3 through the provision of Hausa early grade teaching and learning materials; intensive teacher-training, and advocacy at the state, local government and community levels.
