Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed, has approved the teaching of phonics to improve the reading skills of pupils in basic schools.
This means that early reading will be taught by linking sounds with letters that represent them, to enable children to begin building words as early as possible.
Commissioner of Education, Dr. Aliyu Usman Tilde, who disclosed this, also said that pupils, especially from the northern states, struggle to read because phonics was left out by public schools.
Tilde said that every primary school teacher will have to attend phonics training courses on a regular basis while phonics videos will be shared to teachers weekly via watsapp.
According to him, “The Northern child has been alienated for long in the evolution of primary school English curriculum in this country. The textbooks used for long are meant for children who already have sufficient English vocabulary.”
Daily Trust recalls that Northern Education Initiative (NEI), in 2016, introduced the Jolly Phonics techniques in some select schools in 10 LGAs across the state, including training teachers and provision of learning aids.
A teacher in Kobi Primary School, Bauchi, who gave her name as Fatima, said that at the initial stage, phonics lesson was motivating for both teachers and pupils.
Fatima said that the system has improved the skills of pupils in identifying the sounds of every letter from the way they are written, and that “There is wide learning gap between pupils taught to read using phonics and those without phonics skills.”
She said phonics classes were at one time non-existent owing to lack of the teaching materials. “Majority of the books and equipment supplied by NEI are in poor shape, and they have not been replaced,” she said
Another teacher, Malama Zainab, said that the phonics system has improved the skills of the children in both reading and writing.
She said, “The technique has inculcated the ability of the pupils to perform dictation correctly. They build words and form sounds.”
She noted that training and retraining of teachers is needed to achieve success. “A good number of the teachers are conversant with the techniques of phonics, and there is need for training and provision of teaching aids and text books for pupils.” she added
Also, a headmaster in Giade LGA told Daily Trust that the earlier phonics project was not effective in his school because a few teachers got phonics training but “there was no follow-up to ensure effectiveness on the part of instructors.”
He said the school had to abandon the initiative because of lack of textbooks and other instructional materials.
In the interim, Education Commissioner, Dr Tilde, explains that most of the English Language textbooks are not pupil-friendly, and that most of the authors do not take cognisance of the needs of the pupils, hence the introduction of the phonics system,
He said, “Without ability of the child to read, his portion in education of any kind is nil. That is why in Qur’anic schools; it is reading first, nothing else.”
He explained that the absence of a systematic method makes teaching the reading of English difficult.
Tilde said, “Today, we have millions of children spending nine years of basic education without any ability to read even simple words. The ability to read simple words and sentences among primary school children in Northern Nigeria, according to a 2013 Reading and Access Research Activity (RARA) survey, was 1.4%. Bauchi scored 3% then. It means 97% of our public school children could not read simple words then.”
Phonics, he said, is being taught in schools in most advanced countries and that it has solved the fundamental problem facing pupils in reading. He said the system teaches a child the sounds of letters first, not their names, and goes on to take it through the different blending and exceptions.
“In the past 20 years, I have learnt to use it on children and Almajirai; it takes just few lessons to make a breakthrough. It is one of the secrets behind the success of my private school,” Tilde said.
He further said phonics was introduced 20 years ago by Mr. Trevor Hearfield “at our Millennium Academy, Tilden Fulani,” adding that the governor had approved its adoption in all public schools.
The Commissioner also said that in 2004, while serving as adviser on education to former Governor Adamu Muazu, SUBEB was directed to undertake intensive English training program for teachers in which phonics was a major component.
According to him, with the governor’s approval, all the necessary measures to see that phonics has spread to every school was adopted along with early language skills and all that it takes for training of teachers.
He said teaching materials will be available to all interested individuals, schools and governments.
He said officially, every school in Bauchi State must ultimately adopt phonics as the child-centred method of teaching reading skills in English, and the approach will not be optional but compulsory when all necessary preparations have been made for its successful take-off and compliance next one year.
He said, “So, the significance is that I am already thinking of establishing a centre of phonics in the state where all works and trainings on phonics will take place. The Chevron building at GHUKUC will be ideal for that, if the idea is accepted by other stakeholders.”
Dr Tilde said with no political and his ministry will deal with the major obstacles that impede the delivery of quality education, one after the other. Also, with improved teacher and child attendance and phonics, other things, like English fluency and teacher qualification will be tackled, each at the right time. He said Bauchi will, in a couple of years, make progress in education delivery.
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