The Accelerated Basic Education Programme, ABEP, has been described as a major intervention for reducing the number of out-of-school children by providing them with a second chance to acquire basic education.
This was disclosed during a step-down training for ABEP facilitators held at the GSS Dangana Cluster in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State.
The training was organised by the Kano State Qur’anic and Islamiyya Schools Management Board, QISMB, in collaboration with UNICEF, to strengthen the capacity of facilitators implementing the second-chance education programme.
Speaking during the training, facilitators Zahra’u Shuaibu and Abubakar Ibrahim said the ABEP curriculum was carefully mapped out with scripted lesson plans to make teaching and learning easier.
They explained that the scripted lesson plans would help facilitators address challenges that could arise in the classroom, particularly as some beneficiaries had never attended formal school or had dropped out at an early stage.
The facilitators said the training would enable teachers to understand the peculiar needs of the learners and adopt appropriate teaching methods to improve their understanding.
They noted that ABEP was divided into three levels, with Level One covering Primary One to Three, Level Two covering Primary Four to Six, while Level Three covers Junior Secondary School, JSS, One to Three.
According to them, the structure would enable children aged between 10 and 18 years who had missed formal education to complete primary and junior secondary education within three years.
Also speaking, a representative of the Kano State Agency for Mass Education, SAME, in Nasarawa Local Government Area, Mudassir Abubakar, said the facilitators were being trained on how to effectively guide children re-enrolled under the programme.
He said the facilitators would help the learners catch up with the education they missed due to dropping out of school, adding that both teachers and beneficiaries had demonstrated commitment and cooperation.
The ABEP Master Trainer in Nasarawa Local Government Area, Abdullahi Hussaini, said the step-down training was designed to prepare teachers to provide effective second-chance education to learners aged between 10 and 18 years.
He said twenty-two participants were taking part in the training at the centre, adding that the Accelerated Basic Education Programme, supported by UNICEF in collaboration with the European Union under the Global Partnership for Education, GPE, was providing second-chance education to out-of-school children across Northeast Nigeria.