The year 2022 began with a goal of ending learning poverty and transforming education by expanding the reach of AREAi’s flagship program, FastTrack, to provide foundational literacy and numeracy skills to 2,500 out-of-school refugee children in 4 Internally displaced camps.
According to the recent 2021 UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey in Nigeria, only 27% of children and adolescents aged 7-14 have foundational reading skills, and 25% have foundational numeracy skills. With Nigeria being among the top countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the number of out-of-school children, this can be said to be the right goal in addressing the global education crisis.
After piloting FastTrack in four IDP learning centers in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states last year, with 95% of 1500 beneficiaries showing increased proficiency for double-digit additions and subtractions and improved reading proficiency to paragraph level, TheirWorld Foundation decided to fund this great innovation to scale up the impact, to reach more IDP children and bridge their learning gaps caused by a variety of factors.
For over six months, FastTrack was implemented in six FCT IDP learning centers, including WASSA 1, Paicon, Camp David, Malaysian Garden, and New Kuchingoro, among others, the learners were taught by trained FastTrack Facilitator- Programme and Impact Fellows and local teachers using three methodologies: Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL)methodology, Mavis Talking Book and Pen, and Bi-lingual Method of Teaching in order to ensure that all FastTrack learners acquire the basic foundational numeracy and literacy. It was a success, with excellent learning outcomes from all learners.
The FastTrack impact report 2022 was released in August, which was an excellent accomplishment for team members who devoted their expertise and time to achieve the desired results. The impact report consists of accurate figures and an easy-to-read chart of how AREAi provided basic literacy and numeracy skills to 2,417 beneficiaries across 6 IDP camps. It shows statistics indicating the learning progression and the three methodologies used to bridge the learning gaps and improve learning outcomes for all beneficiaries.
Join countless people around the world who are already reading this report to learn how FastTrack helped 2,417 children in IDP camps have access to alternative accelerated learning to facilitate the development of their foundational skills. Click here to download FastTrack Report.
With the excellent learning outcomes from the recently completed Fasttrack phase, as evidenced by this year’s Impact report, we are optimistic about the next phase, and by 2036, the organization plans to scale FASTTRACK to reach 1,000,000 out-of-school children with the basic foundational skills needed to participate in future learning for better educational, employability, and livelihood outcomes.
Never too tired to impact!