Bauchi Field Office of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in conjunction with the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has designed a special education system which has accommodated out of school children who returned to school.
Under the system called Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), the children, irrespective of the class from which they stopped going to school, are put together in one classroom and taught basic education.
The Teachers have been trained on how to handle the teaching methods which are basically the same, using objects that depict what they are been taught so that it will sink into their heads.
Another unique thing about the method is that both pupils and teachers are made to sit on the bare floor in a circle as the lesson is going on due to what is said to be the adaptation of what they do while hawking around.
One of the designated schools for the programme is the Central Primary School, Misau where a bloc of Classrooms has been set aside for the teaching and learning for out of school children who chose to return to school.
The programme is done in collaboration with the School Base Management Committee (SBMC) which are saddled with the responsibilities of the day to day running of affairs of the school.
In his remarks, the Education Secretary of Misau LGEA, Alhaji Abdul said that the new approach to teaching and learning has positively improved the education system of the area.
He emphasised that the pupils have really improved in the way they take learning seriously and can effectively and efficiently interact with each other and ask questions in the classes.
Chairman of the SBMC of the Central Primary School, Misau, Alh Saleh Jarmajo commended UNICEF, SUBEB and other stakeholders in the educational sector for introducing the new approach to teaching and learning.
He lamented on the rate of out of school children in the area saying that it has become a menace that must be stopped at all means in order to improve on education.
Saleh Jarmajo however said that the problem can be traced to poverty caused by lack of work to be done by the parents, both father and mother saying that, “The children have become breadwinners of most of the families.”
According to him, “The children, most especially, the girl child must go out to hawk in order to bring food to the family. Because of that, the parents don’t encourage the girl child to go to school.”
He was rhetorical when he said that, “When you approach a Father about allowing his children to go to school and tells you that he does not have what to eat unless the child goes out to hawk. What else can you do other than to just leave him.”
He appealed to government and other individuals to assist by creating job opportunities that will be sources of small income that will encourage parents to allow their children.
While explaining the TaRL approach to learning and teaching, UNICEF Education Specialist, Abdulraham said that it was introduced in 2018 in Borno state to augment what is done in the schools considering the insurgency that kept children out of school.
He said that it was introduced in 4 LGAs of Bauchi State in order to check issues of out of school children in Alkaleri, Ningi, Zaki and Misau LGAs stressing that the essence is to give the children, basic numeracy activities.
Though the TaRL approach was introduced in May 2023 with the training of the trainers by UNICEF, 37 out of school children have returned to school in Misau comprising 17 girls and 20 boys while efforts are intensified to have more return to school.
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