UK, US-Sponsored Education Programme In North-East Nigeria Ends

A programme funded by the United States and United Kingdom to address challenges in education in North-east Nigeria has drawn to a close.

The programme, “Addressing Education in Northeast Nigeria (AENN)” with a lifespan of three years was launched in 2018, to help the government of Nigeria create more certified and safe educational environments for girls and boys in Borno and Yobe in collaboration with major local, federal, and international education establishments.

The activity has since improved literacy, numeracy, and social emotional skills of nearly 200,000 out-of-school children in formal and non-formal settings, more than half of them girls.

USAID Mission Director Dr. Anne Patterson joined Nigerian education officials and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to mark the closing of the three-year U.S. and UK government-funded activity.

Paterson said: “It is promising to see that of those girls and boys who participated in the new instruction throughout Borno and Yobe, nine out of 10 were able to later transition successfully back into mainstream education despite missing school time because of conflict.”

She added that: “A better educated Nigeria is a stronger, more prosperous, and ultimately resilient Nigeria.”

Utilizing research conducted by USAID and its partners, the activity was designed to create a sense of safety for young people, and produced in local languages to increase children’s ability to learn and build resiliency from the surrounding conflict.

The conflict-sensitive curricula were supplied in the Hausa and Kanuri languages in more than 900 accelerated education centers supported by AENN.

Rebuilding the devastated school system also included addressing the gap left by the thousands of teachers who were forced to abandon their jobs in the Northeast.

AENN provided conflict-sensitive training to more than 2,000 learning facilitators and another 600 school administrators who can continue to advance the learning opportunities in their respective communities.

AENN was implemented by FHI360 in consortium with Save the Children International and Via Mobile, as well as in close collaboration with the government of Borno and Yobe and community-based organizations.