For Yakaka, An Alternate Learning Opportunity
How catchup education classes are helping displaced children in northeast Nigeria.
The Wednesday afternoon sun burned its highest incense over the 1,000-person IDP camp last week in Dikwa, a town in northeast Nigeria. Loud, excited voices rang out in defiance of the heat at a UNICEF-supported temporary learning centre for children.
One… Two… Three… Four… Five….!
The chant belongs to the dozens of displaced children attending a catchup education class at this 1000 IDP centre.
In one classroom, children diligently chorused numbers and the alphabet. In another, they listened with rapt attention as their teachers explained a concept written on the blackboard.
A prettier sight still, 20 children sit outside one of the classrooms, eagerly waiting to be enrolled.
Welcome to the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP), an education project initiated by UNICEF in collaboration with the Borno State Government. The ABEP provides an alternative learning opportunity for out-of-school children. Funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), it is providing a second chance at education for out-of-school children across northeast Nigeria.
The 1000 IDP centre is one of such ABEP locations in Dikwa, strategically located near IDP camps for displaced children.
Born in Gajibo village near Dikwa, Yakaka had never been to school until now. The ten-year-old does not remember arriving in Dikwa as her parents and 5 siblings fled Gajibo at the peak of armed conflict in the region.
Mathematics is my favourite subject because I love to count. I enrolled for the purpose of knowledge, but I would love to become a doctor so that I can help other people.
Aside from her other siblings who also attend the ABEP programme, Yakaka has also made two new friends in her education journey, Fatima Modu and Falmata Babagana.
“Yakaka is one of the most regular children in my class,’’ said Shettima Zanna Bukar, Yakaka’s teacher. “She is also very inquisitive and asks questions on what she does not understand. She has improved over the five months since she enrolled,’’ he added.
According to the 2025 Joint Education Assessment Needs (JENA), two million children are estimated to be out of school in northeast Nigeria. Majority of them are displaced and are now being supported to acquire literacy and numeracy skills to fulfil their potential.
Yakaka is one of the many children now attending the ABEP classrooms, attending lessons designed for out-of-school children over a three-year period. These children are schooled and prepared for external examinations and mainstreamed into secondary schools, to continue their education. Yakaka Modu is one of these happy studious faces, availing this second chances at change.
