On October 5, 2022, the American University of Nigeria (AUN), in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board (ADSUBEB), flagged off a facilitators' training workshop for a new phase of the AUN Feed and Read program, which is now delivered through the new Global Center for Out-of-School Children (GCOSC) at AUN.
UNICEF Consultants Dr. Abdulmumini Murtala and Dr. Sani Muhammad Ahmed were on campus to conduct the workshop, which is organized to induct and train the facilitators in the program as well as AUN student volunteers. The five-day training aims to introduce a new, UNICEF-endorsed pedagogical approach to the program.
Renamed AUN-UNICEF Feed and Learn program, it will continue to cater to the educational and nutritional needs of out-of-school boys and girls in Yola. The UNICEF Consultants explained the need for sensitive and effective teaching and learning for the vulnerable targets of the program. They canvassed the importance of developing the facilitators' capacity to deliver lessons methodically and sensitively. They also stressed the need for the teachers to understand different ways of organizing learners to learn effectively.
"This module for teaching is schemed in the learners' mother tongue, so, facilitators have to either speak Hausa or Fulfulde," stated the consultants.
Dean of AUN Graduate School and Research, Professor Jacob-Udo Udo-Jacob, who oversees the evolving work of the GCOSC, explained that the new name, Feed and Learn, is designed to reflect the broader intentions of the program.
"This particular intervention that is funded by UNICEF is named Feed-and-Learn to reflect the fact that the children will do a lot more than read. We would still be feeding them with very nice meals every day, while they learn basic numeracy and literacy, and various life skills. We are adding a couple of other things like teaching them to be compassionate, kind, and caring, and to think critically," he said.
The Dean said that the program had reached a sustainability level because this is its seventh cohort, so the approach to teaching now has to be more intentional. "We have a very clear approach because there are things we want to achieve, which include, to promote a love for learning, to streamline the children into formal schools and to create a model which can be replicated elsewhere to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria,” he added.
The seventh Feed-and-Read cohort, sponsored by UNICEF, has a research component and a proven pedagogical approach, which will be monitored and evaluated to understand the effectiveness of the program. AUN students will participate in the monitoring and evaluation of the program within the context of the CDV courses: 'Data and Development' (CDV 205) and 'IT Literacy' (CDV 202). The new AUN-UNICEF Feed and Learn program will be coordinated by Mr. Raymond Obindu.
In addition to the funding, UNICEF will provide tablets to support teaching and learning as well as school bags to the pupils. The program is expected to commence next week after the workshop. Already, one hundred learners - made up of 50 boys and 50 girls - have been selected from the community. It is expected that after graduation from the program, the pupils will be mainstreamed or integrated into formal schools, but with three layers of conditionality: first the pupils must be willing to proceed with their education. Second, their parents or guardians must give their consent. Thirdly, there must be available schools willing to admit them.
Reported by Abah John