After a one-day sensitization workshop and National dialogue on pre-service Early grade reading in Nigeria held at NCCE, a large number of provosts across the country that attended expressed willingness to emulate the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) by establishing an early grade reading centers in their colleges.

According to them, the initiative is timely and would help aid teacher production in the country. The provosts, who made their interests known during the baseline assessment of Northern Education Initiative (NEI+) early grade reading in Bauchi and Sokoto states held at NCCE Abuja on the 29th of August, 2019 commended NCCE for setting up the model to serve as a guide for colleges to adopt.

They described NCCE collaboration with NEI+ in promoting and increasing access to early reading skills to the Nigerian child as fantastic, adding that; reading leads to learning, learning to knowledge and knowledge to development, which they say leads to progress in virtually all aspects of human life.

The Executive Secretary, Prof. Bappa Aliyu Muhammadu, who earlier welcomed the participants during his opening remarks, urged the participants to find possible way in establishing the early grade reading centre. Meanwhile, in order to take the initiative to other parts of the country, the provosts appeal to NEI+ to extend the gesture to all geopolitical zones, rather than limiting it to Sokoto and Bauchi alone. Responding on behalf of NEI+, Mrs. Lydia Amuna, an English student specialist for USAID funded NEI+ projects said, the programme focused on Bauchi and Sokoto states following the poor results deduced from them in the assessment carried out in the country.

Hence, that informed the intervention in the states but assured that there is room for scale up of the programme to other parts of the country. Mrs. Lydia express deep appreciation to NCCE in ensuring that NEI+ projects recorded the desired success in the two pilot states but however encourages other colleges to take the programme seriously as its importance cannot be over emphasized in the development of pupil at that basic level of Education.