Universal Basic Education Commission on Thursday in Abuja held a meeting with the Education Commissioners, Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards and directors in an effort to introduce ‘Synthetic Phonics Method’ in schools.
The acting Executive Secretary of UBEC, Prof. Rashid Aderinoye, noted that the meeting was a follow-up to the recommendation made by the Nigerian delegates at an international conference in the United Kingdom in 2012.
He said the delegates recommended a meeting with the expert from the UK, Mr. Chris Jolly, on how to introduce the method in Nigeria.Underscoring the importance of the initiative, Aderinoye said there was the need to link properly curriculum, teaching method and the teacher in order to solve reading challenges.
According to him, quality and consistency of teaching are central to an effective learning.He said, “The role of school leadership and teachers’ attitude to teaching and especially to reading, should be our concern so much that teachers’ attitude must be positive and school leadership must be professionally sound and committed towards school performances.
“Quality of teaching should be ensured and strengthened through virile recruitment policies that stress qualification and competence, commitment and performance.”
To achieve reading and comprehension, Aderinoye said, teachers must understand the basic principles for children to know letter-sounds correlations, and to learn the skills of blending and segmenting them in order to decode and spell words correctly.
“We should collectively initiate a process, with recommendations that would lead to institutionalizing a policy programme that will positively redirect school achievements in Nigeria through effective reading, comprehension and writing skills”, he added.
The Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, urged stakeholders to join in the effort to use synthetic phonics to improve reading and writing to young children early enough in our primary schools.
“We must also make sure that teachers are skilled in the new paradigm shift of being facilitators of students’ learning outcomes and not the repository of knowledge, who expects students to rely more on rote memory,” he said.
