Gbadega Adedapo (left), MD/CEO, Accessible Publishers Ltd; Wasiu Adewale Olatunbosun, Commissioner for Tradition and Tourism, Oyo State, and Collins Minene, Regional Director; Africa, Room to Learn, on the Nigeria Literacy E-book Adaptation Mission occasion at Ibadan just lately.
Whereas there have been makes an attempt prior to now to protect Nigeria’s linguistic heritage, Accessible Publishers Ltd is taking the efforts a notch increased with its modern challenge.
Tagged ‘Nigeria Literacy E-book Adaptation Mission’, this newest innovation from the steady of the Ibadan-based publishing firm is designed to revive the fading glory of Nigeria’s three massive languages – Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba.
The challenge is using on the profitable launch of Accessible Studybase, an modern on-line studying platform by the publishing outfit, which is aimed toward enhancing classroom instructing and studying for lecturers, college students and faculty directors.
By means of the challenge, translated books in these languages shall be accessible to lecturers and college students to ignite the love of mom tongues amongst youths.
In the meantime, the Nigeria Literacy E-book Adaptation Mission is a collaborative enterprise Accessible Publishers entered into with Room to Learn, a Kenya-based organisation.
Following the collaboration, 4 staff members of Room to Learn visited the nation just lately and had been hosted in Ibadan alongside Nigerian translation and linguistic students to successfully perform the project.
The staff embrace: Collins Munene, regional operations director for Africa; Zamaradi Saidi, world director, Gender Fairness; Tutus Kazungu, affiliate director, Literacy (Africa), and
Alison Ziki, affiliate director – Publishing (Africa).
As effectively, the Nigerian Academic Analysis and Growth Council (NERDC), Ministry of Schooling, Common Primary Schooling Fee (UBEC), State Common Primary Schooling Boards (SUBEB), authorities officers from completely different states, instructional and curriculum planners, dignitaries, and different related companies had been additionally current to bear witness to the historic occasion.
Whereas declaring the Room to Learn collaboration workshop open, Gbadega Adedapo, managing director/Chief Government Officer, Accessible Publishers, mentioned that the initiative was akin to igniting a motion that holds the facility to reshape Africa’s narrative, renew linguistic heritage, and rekindle the flame of studying amongst youngsters. “That is greater than an occasion; it’s a clarion name to motion, to inclusion, and to excellence,” he mentioned, whereas commending the Kenyan organisation for selecting to collaborate along with his agency.
“We at Accessible Publishers Ltd are humbled by the belief your organisation (Room to Learn) has positioned in us, following your rigorous evaluation of potential Nigerian companions. This recognition affirms our longstanding dedication to excellence in instructional publishing. For over twenty years, we’ve got pursued a singular mission: to make high quality training accessible and reasonably priced for each Nigerian learner, no matter location or standing,” Adedapo added.
He highlighted the strategic significance of the collaboration with Room to Learn, as “a partnership written in function and sure by imaginative and prescient.
“Room to Learn envisions a world during which all youngsters can entry high quality training, realise their full potential, and meaningfully contribute to the society. And thru this Nigeria Literacy E-book Adaptation Mission, that imaginative and prescient is taking root right here, in our communities, in our languages. We rejoice and applaud Room to Learn for recognising the importance of native languages and indigenous cultures in studying. Your dedication to publishing storybooks in Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba displays not solely linguistic inclusiveness but in addition cultural affirmation. This chance will as soon as once more permit our kids to see their worlds mirrored in literature, their names, their proverbs, their folktales, not as afterthoughts, however as centrepieces of studying.
“We’re additionally deeply moved by your gender-sensitive method to literacy. Your unwavering dedication to the training of the girl-child is each progressive and highly effective, as mirrored in certainly one of your maxim, “Making a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. By inserting books in her palms, you place future in her attain.”
Adedapo then referred to as on cultural custodians, translators, educators and data bearers saying, “might your work be a present to this era and a legacy to the following”.
He ended his tackle saying: “Literacy isn’t a luxurious, it’s a lifeline. It’s the ladder from poverty to risk, from obscurity to alternative. With each web page we produce and each youngster we attain, we flip the tide towards progress.”
A number of the language consultants assembled to hold out the interpretation activity embrace: Tyjani Shehu Almajir, a professor and Hausa language professional, Division of Linguistics and Overseas Languages, Bayero College, Kano; Suleeyman Hamisu Aliyu, Hausa language professional, College of Secondary Schooling (Languages), Federal Faculty of Schooling, Abeokuta, Ogun State; Nwagbo Osita Gerald, Igbo language professional, Division of Linguistics, African and Asian Research, College of Lagos; Abdulazeez Umma Sa’ade, Hausa language professional, Division of Linguistics and African Research, Emmanuel Alayande College of Schooling, Oyo; Aboderin Oluwakemi Adebisi, Yoruba language professional, Division of Yoruba Research, Tai Solarin College of Schooling; Clement Adeniyi Akangbe, Yoruba language professional, Division of Library, Archival and Data Research, College of Ibadan, and Ebele Okafor, Division of Linguistics, African and Asian Research, College of Arts, College of Lagos.
The language consultants shared their views on the crucial of the train that they consider ought to have began years in the past, noting that now could be pretty much as good as nothing. For Akangbe, “The collaboration between Room to Learn and Accessible Publishers Ltd was extremely efficient and well-coordinated. It introduced collectively a various staff of language consultants, educators, and publishing professionals in a structured and inclusive surroundings. Room to Learn offered technical experience and worldwide greatest practices, whereas Accessible Publishers introduced native data and implementation capability.
Collectively, they created a platform the place high quality and contextual relevance had been prioritized, guaranteeing that the ultimate merchandise met world literacy requirements whereas remaining authentically Nigerian. This type of collaboration is a mannequin for future literacy improvement initiatives in Nigeria.”
Gerald summed the proceedings on the workshop and your entire collaborative efforts thus, “For starters, I’ve learnt learn how to mentor college students in artistic writing tasks particularly for early-grade readers in Igbo. I, together with my different colleagues, are planning to launch a scholar writers’ membership targeted on producing youngsters’s literature in Nigerian languages. As a author, I’ll attempt to develop a sequence of culturally embedded storybooks for youngsters in Igbo that mirror city and rural realities, together with intergenerational relationships — one thing we don’t write about sufficient in our kids’s literature.”
In response to Abdulazeez, “The coaching offered a wealth of insights that reduce throughout literacy principle, cultural adaptation, and youngster psychology.
I discovered the periods on narrative construction for early readers and culturally delicate illustration significantly enlightening. These are points usually missed in educational discussions of youngsters’s literature. I intend to infuse these learnings into each my college lectures and writing apply.
My course content material will now give larger emphasis to the worth of localized storytelling in cognitive improvement. As an creator and trainer, I plan to create extra Hausa youngsters’s books which are pedagogically sound and culturally grounded.”
