On February 3, 2023, the Atiku Institute for Development (AID) of the American University of Nigeria launched a new education inclusion scheme to bring more neighborhood kids into the formal school system and reduce Nigeria's rapidly rising number of out-of-school children.
The newly introduced scheme, Accelerated Universal Basic Education Program, the first of its kind in Nigeria, is an integrated and multi-functional model that fulfills the recipient's basic formal educational needs and equips them with practical knowledge for a life of self-sustenance. Enrolled students will be taught consecutively for three years with the curriculum approved for Junior Secondary Schools in Nigeria.
The scheme will focus on vocational and technical skills. On graduation, participants will receive the Junior Secondary School Certificate (JSS) certificate, and those who wish to continue their education will progress to the Senior Secondary class. Those who opt to pursue a self-employment career will be given incentives to establish their own vocational or technical-oriented businesses.
The Accelerated Universal Basic Education Program (AUBEP) is being introduced after the AUN-UNICEF Feed and Learn Program, which adopted the hugely successful Haske model curriculum for teaching out-of-school kids numeracy and literacy in their native languages of Hausa and Fulfulde.
The Chief of Party of the Atiku Institute for Development, Dr. Audu Liman, expressed optimism that with the support of the Adamawa State Ministry of Education, AUN-AID will increase the number of enrollees as soon as more funds are sourced.
Program Coordinator Hajiya Turai Abdulkadir, who gave a brief history of the Feed and Learn Program, called for more support from organizations, institutions and individuals to augment what has been pledged by UNICEF, explaining that a lot of funds have gone into the planning of the Program.
Mrs. Turai also explained that the Program is beginning with 25 students.
"This number is very small, but it is better to do something than not to do anything," she said.
The Dean, School of Arts and Sciences and Chair of AUN Deans' Council, Dr. Patrick Fay, who represented AUN's Interim President, Prof. Attahir Yusuf, commended the initiative that culminated in the program because it is a program that ensures out-of-school children are pulled back to school to be educated. Stressing the importance of the program in the area of impacting young children, he said, "Children are the greatest asset of any country; they are the foundation for the future. We owe them the right to education; we owe them the right to development."
Dean Fay urged the students to make the most of this opportunity to be different from their contemporaries and wished them and the program all the best. He also urged other tertiary institutions in the country, especially in the Northeast, to replicate what AUN is doing to reduce the statistics of out-of-school children in the country. Dean Fay’s words were well appreciated by the stakeholders present at the occasion. As Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, he, on behalf of his Government, donated the seed money for the initial takeoff of the AUN Feed and Read program for Girls in 2015.
Interim Dean of AUN School of Engineering, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq Hussaini, described the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria as alarming and commended AUN, AID, and other organizations committed to ending the blight and ensuring a better future for the Nigerian child.
Executive Secretary Adamawa State Mass Education Board, Mr. Aminu Umar, applauded AUN for reducing the number of out-of-school children despite the considerable number recorded by available statistics. He mentioned factors responsible for the menace, which include insecurity, poverty, distance to school, parents' attitudes toward education, and lack of qualified teachers. "We must join hands together to reduce the number of out-of-school children; if not, a time will come when the crisis will increase, and the nation's labor force will reduce," he noted.
Reported by John Abah