The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched the Leveraging Education Assistance Resources in Nigeria (LEARN).

The project, Development Diaries understands, is designed to improve the reading capacity of more than 3.5 million children in Nigeria over the next five years.

According to the U.S. development agency, the project will contribute to improvement in the reading outcomes of children in 5,900 schools and in the capacity of more than 35,000 teachers, headteachers, and school support officers to support early grade reading in about 6,000 schools.

Data from the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) indicates that more than four in ten children in government primary schools in Nigeria cannot read.

‘The new USAID activity will ensure that school-age children and youth in Nigeria are able to gain foundational skills, such as literacy and numeracy, safely, while building critical social and emotional skills to progress to higher levels of education, training, and employment’, Supervisory Programme Office Director, USAID/Nigeria, Stephen Menard, said at the launch.

For his part, the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nana Opiah, said, ‘The Federal Ministry of Education recognises the efforts of USAID in the last 20 years to improve literacy in Nigeria through its innovative programmes.

‘LEARN to Read will build on the close collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, and language/curriculum experts to support mother, tongue-based medium of instruction in the early grades’.

USAID’s education programme focuses on the most vulnerable parts of the population, while supporting the government of Nigeria to deliver quality education.

Key focus areas include increasing enrollment, strengthening basic education, building the capacity of teachers, and raising minimum academic standards for reading curriculum.

Source: US Embassy in Nigeria

Photo source: GPE