Anita's Nigerian Experience: The EGRA Hausa Adaptation Workshop

On Sunday, October 17th I traveled to Sokoto with a group of stakeholders and test administrators from Bauchi state and the person with whom I will be working at NEI (Northern Nigeria Education Initiative), a USAID funded project. In conjunction with the respective Colleges of Education (COE) of each state, Ministries of Education (MOE), Local Government Authority (LGA) and others, NEI is operating programs in both Bauchi and Sokoto States to address poor student performance in literacy and numeracy (mathematics); issues with teacher competency and qualifications and capacity building for stakeholders. One hundred schools in each state have been targeted. Those include public, formal, informal and Islamyyia school.

The week-long workshop we attended was a follow-up to one held in the spring which included training and trial testing of EGRA(Early Grades Reading Assessment) in English. Students in the group sampled performed dismally. The national curriculum requires instruction in the major national language, Hausa, in grades 1-3. Yet many parents prefer students to learn English as soon as possible. English is view and the language of 'success'.

Sandra Hollingsworth EGRA Hausa Adaptation Workshop

The workshop to adapt EGRA to Hausa and train educators to administer the instrument was conducted by Dr. Sandra Hollingsworth in conjunction with Alison Pflepsen a Research Education Analyst with RTI and Dr. Malami Buba, Linguist, Hausa Specialist and Professor at Usmanu Danfodiyo University here in Sokoto. I gained valuable knowledge about the process of learning to read and how proficiency comes with being literate in ones native language. This provides the cognitive and conceptional knowledge needed to successfully transfer to a second language. Too many of the children in these states are not literate in either Hausa or English. Students memorize the alphabet, but don't know letter sounds.

Dr. Buba on the orthography of Hausa

During the week we were introduced to the research, provided background on the Hausa language and the difference in dialects spoken in Bauchi and Sokoto (two slightly different tests were developed), made modifications to the test, practiced and practiced, field tested the instrument in two local schools, and practiced a little more. The instrument was then ready for finalization and testing in January or Feb of next year. some very interesting dynamics in this whole process.

I've learned a few phrases in Hausa in the process. Thanks to Dr. Buba, I have some materials to use for practice.