Promoting the recruitment of female teachers is not only an essential step towards achieving gender equality, but also contributes to creating a more diverse, inclusive, and enriched educational environment and safer schools for women to teach and for girls to learn. Encouraging the recruitment of female teachers involves recognising the unique contributions
they bring to the profession and addressing barriers that may impede their entry into the field. Representation matters, and having female teachers provides important role models for both male and female students.

The connection between language and education is very visible and paramount. Language has a profound impact on education. Many children start school with knowledge of concepts in their mother tongue but cannot relate to the same concepts in school because they are unfamiliar with the language of the classroom. In order to fully realise the benefits of education in the mother tongue, it is essential for policymakers and educators to recognise the importance of language as a tool for learning and development.

Headteacher Mohammed reports that PLANE’s interventions have resulted in higher enrolment rates, improved literacy skills, and increased motivation among teachers. Notably, students who previously had to reach Primary 4 or 5 before being able to read are now showing progress in reading and writing as early as Primary 1 and 2.

The maiden edition of the Basic Education in Nigeria Bootcamp (BEN-B) was organised by the Federal Ministry of Education in Uyo, Akwa Ibom from 25 to 28 September 2023. The event, with the theme “Improving access to inclusive education for all children in Nigeria towards achieving SDG4”, was supported by various partners including PLANE, UNICEF, The World Bank, British Council and USAID.

The transformation of classrooms through improvised instructional materials in Kano State has shown the power of creativity, determination, and community support. It further strengthens the quality of teaching and learning obtainable even in the face of resource constraints and aligns with PLANE’s mission in Nigeria to promote effective learning. As reported by some of the trained teachers, these improvised materials have improved engagement and interactions with pupils. Mathematics lessons and other subjects are now a more hands-on adventure with bottle cap counters and cardboard cutout shapes.

Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) in September 2023 organised an intensive 5-day training workshop specifically designed for newly recruited teachers in Dutse, Jigawa State. The focus was on the programme’s inclusive package, which equips teachers with the best approaches and techniques for teaching foundational skills in Primary 1 and 2 in PLANE supported schools within Dutse Local Government Education Authority (LGEA).

The Community Action Cycle is Save the Children’s flagship and proven community mobilization/community capacity strengthening approach which fosters individual and collective action to address key programme goals and related outcomes.

Save the Children trained 21 village Agents across the JKK states (Jigawa, Kaduna and Kano) on Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA). The training aims to capacitate the participants with the requisite skills to enable them sensitize, mobilize, form and trained VSLA groups across their communities of implementation. The participants of the VSLA are vulnerable members of the communities, parent and caregivers of children who dropped out of school.