The United Kingdom-backed Scaling Access and Learning in Education (SCALE) programme has been launched in Katsina State to address foundational learning gaps among pupils in Integrated Qur’anic and Tsangaya Education (IQTE) schools and restore educational opportunities for over-aged out-of-school children.
The initiative, launched at the Katsina State Government House on Thursday, is being implemented by the Education Development Trust (EDT), Teaching at the Right Level Africa (TaRL Africa) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), in partnership with the Katsina State Government.
The programme is being introduced against the backdrop of prolonged insecurity, displacement and school closures across parts of Northern Nigeria, which have disrupted the education of thousands of children and heightened the need for flexible and inclusive learning pathways.
Under the initiative, Katsina and Zamfara states will benefit from efforts to strengthen the teaching of reading and mathematics in IQTE schools, while the programme will also contribute to a national review of the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP) curriculum.
According to a statement issued on Friday by the Senior Communications & Public Diplomacy Officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, British High Commission, Atinuke Akande-Alegbe, the enhanced ABEP curriculum is designed to provide accelerated basic education for over-aged out-of-school children, particularly those aged between 10 and 18 whose education has been disrupted by conflict, displacement or other barriers.
The intervention will deploy the Teaching at the Right Level approach, an evidence-based model that groups pupils according to their actual learning abilities rather than age or class. The approach enables teachers to provide targeted instruction in foundational reading and mathematics.
Programme partners said the model builds on encouraging results recorded in Kaduna State, where it was introduced in IQTE schools with support from the Aminu Musa Abdulsalam Foundation. According to them, children who previously lacked structured reading instruction were able to begin reading simple words and develop greater confidence within months.
Speaking at the launch, Katsina State Governor, Umar Dikko Radda, said his administration’s education priorities went beyond increasing school enrolment to ensuring that children acquire meaningful learning outcomes.
“For us, education is not simply about getting a child into the school. Access is only the beginning, but learning is the ultimate objective,” Radda said.
The governor said the state was working towards an education system capable of continuous improvement rather than one dependent on isolated interventions.
“Where an approach demonstrates value and produces results, we will continue to explore appropriate ways to integrate and sustain such approaches within our educational system,” he added.
The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Suleiman Usman Jibia, described the programme as a major milestone in efforts to expand learning opportunities for emerging and IQTE learners across the state.
Jibia said the government would build on the results of the pilot phase and collaborate with its partners to achieve a broader, more effective and sustainable implementation of SCALE.
The Head of Development Cooperation at the British High Commission in Abuja, Cynthia Rowe, said the programme reflected a shared commitment to ensuring that children acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills regardless of the type of school they attend.
“The launch of SCALE marks an important step in our shared mission to ensure that every child, regardless of the type of school they attend, has the opportunity to build strong foundational literacy and numeracy skills,” Rowe said.
She said the UK was proud to support Katsina State in introducing evidence-based teaching approaches into IQTE schools.
Also speaking, the Senior Education Adviser at the British High Commission, Ian Attfield, said too many children in Northern Nigeria had been denied access to quality education.
“We must all step-up to open flexible, evidence backed pathways to learning, to ensure that no child is left behind,” Attfield said.
SCALE is designed to help governments adapt proven education interventions to local contexts, assess their effectiveness and develop the capacity needed to integrate successful approaches into public education systems.
The expansion of the programme into Katsina and Zamfara represents a broader UK engagement in education across Northern Nigeria, with emphasis on system strengthening, inclusion and foundational learning.
For Katsina, the intervention is expected to strengthen educational pathways for children who are often underserved by conventional schooling, while improving the state’s capacity to sustain effective teaching practices beyond the lifespan of individual development projects.
