Speaking at a recent workshop on foundational literacy and numeracy in Benin, Edo state Yetunde Oluwatosin, a UNICEF education specialist said that over 73% of 10-year-olds in Nigeria find it difficult to read or comprehend simple text.
She said that this development has continued to affect development in the region, hence, UNICEF's collaboration with the Edo State Ministry of Education to implement some digitized intervention programs to enhance the learning proficiency of over 300,000 children across 1,029 public, primary and 471 junior secondary schools in the state. She revealed that such intervention isn't particularly new as the organisation reached more than 1.8 million children with learning materials between 2018 and 2022.
She also highlighted the need to continue to identify and address deficiencies in teacher competencies & professional conduct, address critical shortage of teachers in schools; improve teacher pupil ratio and pupil classroom ratio among other issues.
Also speaking on the development, the Commissioner for Education, Edo State, Dr. Joan Ovawe, affirmed that Edo State Government had taken firm steps with innovative policies and programmes to enhance learning and teaching especially at the elementary stage which is the foundation level for children.
According to her, under the EdoBest initiate, students in Edo State have access to necessary technological facilities and instructional materials that has assisted their learning ability and improve delivery of teachers.
She said, "We also introduced technology into our learning agenda, also distributed learning tablets for students and teachers, to encourage them and ensure that the learning activities are well structured and centralised.
“The special students are also captured in this initiative and the idea is to ensure total inclusiveness in our education agenda,” She added
The initiative has embarked on the re-training of all 15,000 government teachers – novice and experienced – to be technologically supported and empowered teachers.
