By Aluta News
Feb. 3, 2022
The Universal Learning Solutions, Owners of Jolly Phonics has adjudged Niger state the best in the use of Jolly Phonics techniques to improve literacy among primary school pupils in Nigeria.
Malam Umar Bello, the coordinator, Northern Nigeria Programme said this while presenting a report for 2021 in Minna on Thursday.
The occasion was also held to mark the 2022 “World Read Aloud Day’’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Jolly Phonics is a fun and interactive teaching tool that uses the synthetic phonics literacy teaching methodology introduced in the state in 2017 under the Teacher Professional Development initiative.
Bello explained that the rating follows a nationwide independent assessment of all states using a monitoring application where results were produced and sent to a server and analysed.
“We did pupils assessment data nationwide comparison, Niger state pupils at primary one to three displayed above average word reading.
“All the results from all states were compared and the results showed Niger state was above the average and above the national mean, the performance of pupils was excellent,’’ he said.
Bello said that during the assessment in the state, an average of 94 per cent of teachers visited recognised that their pupils’ reading and writing were now better than when they started teaching them Jolly Phonics.
The coordinator disclosed that the organisation had trained more than 8,000 teachers since the inception of the project in 2017 in Niger state.
In his remarks, Dr Isah Adamu, Chairman of the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB), said the project was helping pupils of primary one to three to improve on their reading and writing skills.
“I have followed with kin interest the performance of children who are thought by jolly phonics methodology and they are doing very well.
“The performance of pupils in primary one to three, especially those who have gone through jolly phonics are doing better than those in primary six,’’ he said.
He commended the organisation for the programme and assured that improvement would be made on areas where necessary.
According to him, the board will continue to work hard to sustain the programme by increasing the number of quality teachers.
NAN