The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported the distribution of additional reading materials in Hausa – Ina Son Karatu! (I want to read! In Hausa) – to 157,000 elementary school students in Adamawa and Gombe states.

USAID’s Education Strengthening Activity in Northeastern Nigeria (SENSE), implemented by the American University of Nigeria (AUN), developed the two-state packages, which contain more of 5.2 million copies of educational reading material produced with USAID’s first grade evidence-based reading methodology using global best practices.

“Through years of conflict, education in the northeast has been decimated,” said Anne Patterson, USAID mission director. She added that “By working with AUN, we are helping to rebuild the system by providing materials that employ evidence-based methods to jumpstart thousands of children into a lifetime of reading.”

At the ceremonies in Gombe on May 26 and Yola on May 19, each learner received a take-home booklet containing up to 30 different stories and books at different levels designed to help them improve their reading skills over an entire school year. . SENSE encouraged parents to have their children read the stories to them after school to further improve their reading skills.

Over three years, SENSE will reach over 200,000 learners and train and provide educational materials to 5,000 teachers to improve reading in the Hausa language. SENSE enables the education systems of Gombe and Adamawa to provide accessible, high-quality education that meets the needs of all children.

The SENSE approach to encouraging reading is supported by research into effective methods of teaching reading in the early years. A study by the American Institutes for Research, supported by USAID, identifies that the availability of an abundance of reading material in various forms relevant to the reader’s background, language and interests for independent reading provides significantly higher results.