By Nana A. Sad, Dutse
Concerned that many young children enter primary school without adequate foundational skills, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with funding from the European Union (EU), has intensified efforts to improve school readiness in Jigawa State through the training of Early Childhood Care and Development teachers.
The intervention is centred on the one-year pre-primary curriculum and Teachers’ Guide, with emphasis on equipping teachers to help children aged three to five develop basic cognitive, social, emotional, physical, literacy and numeracy skills before entering formal primary education.
Under the programme, 240 ECCD teachers drawn from 10 UNICEF Early Years Education Programme in Nigeria (EYEPINN) intervention local government areas participated in a five-day step-down training held from July 1 to 5, 2026.
The participating LGAs are Babura, Birnin Kudu, Garki, Hadejia, Jahun, Kafin Hausa, Kazaure, Kiri Kasamma, Kiyawa and Maigatari.
The exercise followed a two-day refresher training held on June 29 and 30 to prepare facilitators for the wider LGA-based capacity-building programme.
Twenty-four teachers were selected from each of the 10 participating LGAs, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 240.
At Kiyawa Special Primary School, one of the training centres, facilitators said the programme was responding to the need for a more specialised approach to teaching young children, many of whom encounter a formal classroom environment for the first time at the pre-primary level.
One of the facilitators, Dr Jamila Abba, said early childhood education should not be treated as a smaller version of conventional primary school teaching, stressing that children between the ages of three and five require teaching methods suited to their developmental stage.
“We are conducting a five-day ECC teacher training programme with a total of 24 teachers drawn from different schools within Kiyawa Local Government Area,” she said.
“We are here to train teachers on present-day methods of teaching children in Early Childhood Care classes. They have been teaching, but there are concerns about how some of the classes are being handled.”
According to her, the training focuses on professional teaching standards, lesson planning, classroom delivery and appropriate methods of assessing young learners.
“The objective is to enable the teachers to practise effectively and apply professional standards in teaching. We are also training them on how to plan lessons, conduct classes and assess children after teaching,” she added.
Dr Abba explained that the early years represented a critical stage in a child’s educational journey because many children were leaving their homes and entering structured learning environments for the first time.
She said teachers must therefore understand how to make classrooms welcoming, interactive and responsive to children’s developmental needs rather than relying solely on methods commonly used in higher primary classes.
“Early childhood education entails an entirely different approach. It is not like primary school. Many of our teachers are more conversant with teaching primary classes, which is why this specialised training is necessary,” she said.
The facilitator also linked the renewed intervention to findings from an assessment of early childhood education delivery in Jigawa State, which, according to her, revealed serious gaps and a poor performance rating.
“Based on the assessment we received from Jigawa, the performance was very poor. That is why the need for this training arose,” she said.
She added that one of the weaknesses identified was the possibility that teachers directly responsible for ECC classes had not always benefited from previous capacity-building programmes.
“It appeared that during previous trainings, the right teachers were not always brought for the exercise. This time, we ensured that only teachers handling ECC classes, alongside relevant head teachers, were selected.
“This is also an effort to correct earlier gaps and ensure that the people receiving the training are those who will directly apply the knowledge in the classrooms,” Dr Abba said.
Another official involved in the programme, Amin Abdullahi, said the response of participants during interactive sessions indicated that the training was already improving their understanding of early childhood development.
He said the knowledge acquired could help teachers support not only children’s academic development but also their social behaviour, attitudes, communication and emotional growth.
“From the way the participants are responding to questions, I can see that they have learnt a lot,” he said.
“I hope they will step down the knowledge to the appropriate people and apply the skills in their schools. The social abilities, attitudes and other developmental skills of the children will improve.”
Abdullahi said sustained professional development remained necessary to strengthen public education and enable teachers to improve classroom practices.
He expressed confidence that with continuous training and support, public school teachers could deliver quality learning experiences comparable to acceptable standards elsewhere.
For the Head Teacher of Katanga Central Primary School, Sani Umar Katanga, the intervention could make a significant difference in the way children begin their educational journey.
Katanga said the training had exposed participants to the structure of the one-year pre-primary curriculum, including its domains and sub-domains, as well as methods of preparing weekly lesson plans.
“We are here for a five-day ECCD training on the one-year pre-primary curriculum, and we have gained a lot,” he said.
“Apart from understanding the domains and sub-domains of the curriculum, we have learnt how to prepare weekly lesson plans. We are going back to implement what we have learnt in our respective schools.”
He described early childhood education as the foundation upon which later learning outcomes are built, saying children could begin developing important skills before entering primary school.
“ECCD is the grassroots and foundation for beginners. A child of four or five years can begin to recognise letters, numbers and colours, as well as understand days of the week, months of the year and basic weather conditions such as rainy, windy or cool days,” Katanga said.
The LEA ECC Coordinator, Blikis Umar, also described the training as an opportunity to strengthen teachers’ understanding of the curriculum and improve learning experiences for young children.
She said better-trained teachers would be in a stronger position to create child-friendly classrooms and help children gradually develop the confidence and skills required for formal schooling.
The intervention is expected to strengthen the capacity of participating teachers to prepare age-appropriate lessons, assess young learners and support children’s cognitive, emotional, physical and social development.
Education stakeholders say improving school readiness could also help reduce learning difficulties in the early years of primary education by ensuring that children enter school with basic familiarity with letters, numbers, colours, communication, interaction and structured learning.
The programme forms part of broader efforts by UNICEF, with financial support from the European Union, to improve education quality and foundational learning outcomes for children in Jigawa State.
