AUN launches novel radio literacy programme, targets 22,000 vulnerable kids

On February 1, the American University of Nigeria with the US Agency for International Development officially launched the “Year of Literacy – Technology Enhanced Learning for All”.
The project was formally launched in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, by the AUN Founder, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and the Adamawa State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Jibrilla, at an occasion witnessed by members of the AUN community and other distinguished guests.
The guests included Adamawa State Commissioners of Education and Health, Prof. Kaletpwa Farauta and Dr. Fatima Atiku respectively; and Linus T. Wajiati of the State Agency for Mass Education who, in his vote of thanks, sought to partner AUN in the TELA project.
TELA is sponsored by the USAID, which has given AUN a grant to improve literacy and numeracy in Adamawa State.
The programme targets an estimated 22,000 vulnerable children, at-risk youths, orphans, displaced children, and adolescent boys and girls.
The President of the AUN, Margee Ensign, announced that the US Government gave $801,000 to fund the project and AUN has been tasked to prove that the pilot scheme is scalable.
If it succeeds, it will be replicated across Nigeria, Ensign said.
The AUN-API had identified 22,000 vulnerable children around the community.
This is 2,000 more than the grant will fund.
AUN will cover the costs of the additional children.
Seven hundred and fifty facilitators and 750 locations have been identified throughout Yola and Jimeta to oversee the programme.
It is expected that TELA will reach more than 22,000 beneficiaries in Adamawa State since radio is a common medium of mass communication in the North.
Radio and tablet computers will be used as part of the instructional teaching content in the programme.
President Ensign later invited Abubakar and Jubrilla to launch the “Lesson One” of the literacy programme.
They were also handed the literacy workbook to share among the children.
The Lesson One demo of the radio literacy workbook series went live for 15 minutes.
The lead facilitator of the radio literacy programme, Dr. Jacob U. Jacob, the Interim Associate Dean of Arts and Science, said: “Each location will have between 5-10 people and a facilitator to assist the children’s work. We have also provided radio sets; the numeracy program will broadcast on Mondays at 4:10 pm and the literacy program on Thursdays at 4:10pm. Repeat broadcasts will air on Tuesdays and Fridays.”
Jacob added that AUN is partnering with Radio Gotel to air this programme.
Another lead facilitator of the project, Dr. Grace Malgwi, explained the pedagogy of TELA.
Malgwi stated that radio is only part of the literacy programme.
Tablets loaded with apps written by AUN students will also provide learning material for 2,000 of the children.
She said: “Eighteen thousand children will be reached via radio and 2,000 will be reached face-to-face in an after-school tutoring programme.”
Dr. Malgwi, an Assistant Professor of English, further explained that AUN students would play a fundamental role in the literacy programme.
She said: “AUN students enrolled in CDV courses are the trained tutors in the after school program; they have written over 50 children’s book-titles translated into Hausa and Fulfulde. Every child will be taught letter identification, letter sounding, blending of sounds, and then proceed to reading three letter words, and decodable stories.”
TELA addresses the missing link between the home languages as a medium of instruction for these early grade primary school children.
It also addresses the current lack of appropriate reading materials available for use in instruction.
In his remarks, Jubrilla applauded the initiative and thanked USAID.
He described the programme as “the future”.
He pledged his support to programme, noting that there is nothing that will compromise his support for education.
He agreed to make this year the Year of TELA and Literacy in Adamawa State.
Abubakae told a touching account of his own pursuit of an education in the 1950s, how the sand was his notebook and his finger the pencil.
He said: “You are lucky to have the pencil, paper, radio, and tablet. You have no excuse not to be literate.”
He stated that when AUN was first conceived, he thought that “the mandate would be meaningless if it does not affect the lives of the immediate community of this state”.
The Founder praised President Ensign for her excellent work in driving the vision of AUN as a development university.
Abubakar charged AUN community to “…ensure the mission and vision of the University is translated into development solutions”.
Other dignitaries who graced the occasion were chieftains of AUN-API, the prominent peace building association, who nominated the TELA participants from their primary constituencies, including Dr. Stephen Dami Mamza, the Catholic Bishop of Yola Diocese; Malam Gambo Jika of Jamatu Nasril Islam; Bishop Stephen Ransom; Imam Dauda Bello; and Hajia Turai Abdulkadir.