AREAi begins implementation of FastTrack, to reach Out-of-School Children in IDP Camps

In its drive to continually equip out of school children in IDP camps in Northern Nigeria, Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative ( AREAi) is arming these children with literacy and numeracy skills needed to transition back to formal education.

With support of TheirWorld, this is part of a three-month remedial intervention called “FastTrack”, conducted recently. It is a baseline assessment for children between ages five to 14 in Malaysian Garden IDP Settlement in Abuja.

Similar baseline assessments have been conducted in six other IDP Camps since the year began namely – Camp David, Kuchingoro IDP Camp, Pro Labore Dei International Learning Center, IDP Camp Wassa; LEA Learning Center, and Pacion IDP Settlement.

The Chief Executive Director, AREAi and Global Youth Ambassador for Theirworld, Gideon Seun Olanrewaju noted that the familiarisation visits to these IDP Camps, a series of baseline assessments are carried out in each of the camps to assess and evaluate each child’s foundational capacities as this is a key component of the programme.

“This pre-intervention evaluation helps with the identification of individual beneficiary learning gaps, the learning category each child belongs to prior to implementation and what learning groups they should be placed in for effective learning outcomes.”

While conducting the baseline assessment Olanrewaju remarked, “relating with the students in their mother tongue language – Hausa is the best way in accessing them as it is the language they are most comfortable with.” FastTrack combines three proven teaching and learning approaches: The Mavis Talking Book and Pen (a digital pen which, when it touches text or pictures in a specially-printed book, reads words and phrases out loud), Teaching-at-the-Right-Level methodology, and a dual language approach – using the indigenous language (Hausa) as a bridge to teach the English language.”

With these tech-enabled and indigenous approaches, the organisation has recorded a 97% success rate in the IDP settlements where FastTrack has been implemented.

In October 2021, the organisation was awarded the first-ever Education Innovation Award by TheirWorld to scale the impact of FastTrack to reach more children whose access to education and quality of learning have been disrupted by the insurgency in Nigeria.

By 2036, the organisation plans to scale FASTTRACK to reach 1,000,000 out-of-school children in marginalized communities in northern Nigeria with foundational literacy and numeracy skills to engage in future learning for improved educational, employability, and livelihood outcomes.