From Danjuma Labiru Bolari, Gombe
Stakeholders in Gombe State, on Wednesday, said the World Bank-assisted Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project will improve girls’ access to education in the state.
They stated this during a one-day engagement and sensitisation meeting for Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), CBOs and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) held in Gombe.
Dr Amina Abdul, AGILE Project coordinator in Gombe State said that the project would focus on empowering adolescent girls through education.
Abdul said that the aim of the project was to improve secondary education opportunities amongst adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 20 by addressing the barriers that prevent them from accessing education.
According to her, girls who have dropped out of school will, through the AGILE project, get a second chance to continue their education in the state.
She stated that the project, which would soon be launched, would target 10, 000 girls for enrolment across the state.
“The project will not be considered impactful if there is no relative increase in the number of girls being enrolled in school.
“As it is, more girls are dropping out of school and the essence of the project is to get the girls back to school so that we have a better society.
“Our target for enrolment to school is 10,000 and we are hopeful to get that number because it is not that the girls are not there, only that the parents are not ready to send them to school.
“We intend to reach out to the parents and communities so that we get them back to school,” she said.
Abdul said to achieve the essence of the project in the state, a lot of interventions would be initiated and implemented such as girls’ scholarships, renovation of schools and engaging parents.
Mrs Gloria Usman, the Executive Director of Voice of Hope, an NGO, lauded the AGILE initiative,, which she said would help address limitations preventing girls from accessing education.
Usman said since the girl-child form a larger part of the out-of-school children in the state, more initiatives like AGILE should be introduced to empower girls through education.
She, however, called for proper implementation of the project in line with the mandate so that girls could get the right opportunities through education to achieve their potential in life.
Dr Ishiyaku Adamu, the state chairman of the Joint National Association for Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD), said the project was an opportunity to complement efforts at addressing the challenges of educating children in the state.
Adamu called for the prioritisation of children with special needs through enrolment, provision of facilities and training of their teachers.
“We want inclusion school that will cater to all children in the same environment; those with and without special needs having their education under the same roof.
“This will help remove the discrimination because segregating them(children with special needs) is not encouraging,” he said.
