The Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) programme is a flagship education programme funded by the UK Government through the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The nine-year programme which officially began in 2019, is committed to improving foundational literacy and numeracy across Nigeria by strengthening teaching, learning, policy environment, community participation and every part of the education delivery system. As the world observed International Literacy Day, the Senior Education Adviser at British High Commission Abuja, Mr. Ian Attfield, in this interview with THE GUARDIAN, highlighted some of the interventions carried out by PLANE in the five Northern states of Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Borno and Yobe. He also discussed the current state of literacy in Nigeria, how PLANE and government partners are working to improve literacy, what more needs to be done to achieve national and global education goals as well as other ways UK Government is supporting education in Nigeria.
The UK government’s major focus has been on improving basic education outcomes for Nigerian children, especially in the North. How would you describe its interventions in the country so far?
The UK government has been supporting education, especially in the Northern part of Nigeria for over 20 years and I was fortunate to be involved in the earlier phases of the programmes. Over the last three years, across five northern states, the UK government has supported more than 1,200,000 children with improved foundation literacy and numeracy packages in their mother tongue. Our support also includes teachers training, supports through the school support officers and a lot of gender sensitivity work to ensure that the needs of the girl-child and disabled children are met, and to make schools safer and provide a more welcoming environment for all children. We have seen some very promising signs of children going through primary grades. A child doesn’t learn to read overnight but through a gradual process spread over years. We have different levels of learning when a child can identify a character, a word, a full sentence and begin to comprehend. So, it is about learning to read so they can become independent learners and we have seen substantive improvements both in literacy and in numeracy.
About the feedback we get, we visit these states regularly. I was in Kano and Jigawa States recently and we got very positive feedback from teachers, parents, senior government officials and from the children themselves. Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State was so happy with PLANE’s work that he gave the programme an award at a ceremony earlier this year. Obviously, we feel that we are on the right path.
Beyond the fundamental education support, what other reforms and learning interventions has the UK government introduced to strengthen education systems in Nigeria?
We have supported on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) which applies right across the education system on safeguarding. There have been terrible attacks on schools, particularly in some of the Northern states, where children don’t feel safe from banditry and kidnapping. But safety in school goes wider than that, it includes bullying. Are they facing discrimination, unfair and abusive punishment from school staff and teachers? Are there unfavourable gender dynamics and micro-aggressions? All these are very real phenomena. And of course, cyber bullying is increasing as we see more use of digital technologies. So, PLANE has helped introduce comprehensive safeguarding strategies both in the schools that they operate and right across the states and going up into the senior secondary school network. We have done some collaborations with the AGILE programme, which is expanding girls’ education. So, on inclusive education policies, we have been working with some of the special schools and children with special needs, with parents and organisations of people with disabilities, to make schools a much more welcoming environment for children with disabilities. A very simplistic approach is to build ramps over steps to make schools more accessible for wheelchairs but it has to go much farther than that. I am disabled with a mobility impairment and I understand at first hand, some of the discriminations that go on, but with a bit of simple work, which is not particularly expensive, teachers and school communities can be much more welcoming to disabled children and then, all children can benefit because when they interact with disabled children, they start to see the world differently. Just as boys and male youth begin to understand gender dynamics when they talk to girls in mixed groups and understand their views clearly.
How do you see digital literacy in transforming education across Northern Nigeria, especially for marginalized groups such as adults, children and the girls.
The main thing that we have introduced into PLANE this year is a funding arrangement through one of our global facilities called EdTech or Education Technology Hub – a global facility that has expertise on how best to deploy technology, including the most advanced AI breaking technology into education systems in low and medium income countries, including Nigeria. Also, we have realised that the key to introducing digital literacy improvements in Nigeria is to empower the teachers, school support officers and head teachers so that they have appropriate digital tools that they can access on their phones and devices. Many of them have smart phones and are familiar with Facebook and WhatsApp and they’re able to search for content but they struggle with cost of data. They also need appropriate online materials that can help them to build their own content knowledge. We have been working with TRCN and UBEC, communities of practice and structured courses on better teaching methods that a teacher can follow through their phones. In addition, UBEC have been using resources of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which is another global education fund that the UK makes large financial contributions to. They’re operating a major three states initiative, where 60,000 or more tablets are being distributed. So, we’re offering to help the EdTech Hub to understand how those tablets can be best used in order to support teachers in their lesson planning and content delivery.
Nigeria has to make some choices about what to invest in and how, certainly in digital this is critical. We think initially getting teachers and university teachers skilled up, make perfect sense as that’s where the digital transformation is currently happening.
Looking at the magnitude of out-of-school children in the Northern part of Nigeria, are there plans to expand your government’s supported education programs beyond the current five states you operate in?
Yes, we are currently working in five states, including Borno and Yobe States, where our support is channelled through UNICEF. Those two states have experienced major humanitarian challenges. Many children want to go to school, but finance is a barrier. So, the challenge is how to work with federal and state governments to create financing opportunities to expand accelerated education programmes. These programs basically help to cover three years in a single nine to ten-month course, and they’re doing it with a flexible curriculum that’s been developed by the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC). We’re currently discussing support with Kaduna State for a new Out of School initiative and we’re working with the Kano Qu’ranic, Islamic and Tsangaya Board, SUBEB and the State Agency for Mass Education (SAME) to design a more comprehensive and holistic plan because for some children, it’s about integrating literacy and numeracy within the Islamic and Qu’ranic schools.
Teachers’ capacity can be a barrier to quality education. How has the UK Government incorporated teachers’ training strategically to improve learning outcomes in the country?
PLANE has done direct teacher training support through the states and local government school support officers. Direct training has benefited over 12,000 teachers. We’ve also partnered with the National Union of Teachers to organise head teachers and school-based management committee training. Over 16,000 head teachers have received inclusive school leadership training. If head teachers are empowered and supported, then they need to be much more responsible for the education that’s delivered in their schools. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in many of the government schools in Nigeria. One of the strategic elements we’ve done is to work with states such as Kano and Jigawa to improve their recruitment processes. Both Governor Abba of Kano State and his Jigawa State counterpart, Governor Namadi, have been increasing the teachers’ payroll, taking on short-term temporary contract teachers into the full-time payroll. We’ve helped them set up systems so they can do computer-graded assessments to make sure the teachers who are coming in have the necessary skills and competencies.
We also make a strong case that more women should be appointed. The ratio of women teachers to men is much lower in Kano, Jigawa and some other North-Western states. Out of over 8,000 new teachers hired in Kano, just over half were women. But if you look at the overall teacher gender ratio, it was much lower. When you have more women teachers in school, it tends to improve the overall teaching and learning processes. This is what’s backed by evidence from Nigeria and right across Africa.
Finally, can you highlight some challenges encountered in the course of your operations and how they are being addressed?
The UK government acknowledges several challenges affecting education in Nigeria, including high inflation, food insecurity, and security threats. Kaduna State’s shift to a four-day school week, for instance, raised concerns about reduced learning time, prompting an evaluation study that we commissioned, and it showed some challenges with such operations. Obviously, the threats of kidnapping and conflict keep teachers away, so teachers have to feel safe and supported to come to these areas. In addition, environmental issues like flooding and extreme weather are also impacting education. In response, the UK recently launched the Climate-Resilient Infrastructure for Basic Services (CRIBS) programme in Kano and Jigawa to upgrade school infrastructure for climate resilience.
Beyond infrastructure, we want to ensure that information about the situation of learning levels, volumes of out-of-school children and some of the challenges that teachers, head teachers and education officials face are properly understood.
We believe there is a strong case to reform the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act, which is currently being reviewed by the National Assembly. It proposes to increase funding for education financing and also to improve its efficient use. We also want to emphasise the importance of mother tongue learning in early years to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy.
