From Umar Danladi Ado, Sokoto
The Adolescent Girls Initiative Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), says it will soon commence the disbursement of Conditional Cash Support to over 545,200 poorest households aimed at to curtails out of school children in the state.
It could be recalled that on the 7th of June 2024, the state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Muhammad Tukur Alkali had said the Sokoto state government earmarked N150 million as a counterpart fund and N50 million for the takeoff of the programme.
Sokoto State programme Coordinator, Dr Mansur Isa Buhari, revealed this in his remarks during the maiden Bi-Annual media roundtable organized by the team in the state.
Buhari while presenting an overview of the AGILE Project highlighted that it is targeting 387 schools in Sokoto and about 20 million young girls in Nigeria.
He also explained that the Sokoto state government supported by the World Bank would transform and make women’s education in the state vibrant so much so that more enrollments of women would be involved in policy and decision-making bodies.
He further asserted that one of the mistakes organizations, government establishments, NGOs, etc make is neglecting the power of media in their activities.
Buhari stated that all arrangements have been completed for the disbursement of the cash support to the beneficiaries to enable them to support their educational programmes.
“The conditional cash transfer is expected to be disbursed to adolescent girls between now and the end of the year with the target of schools with low enrollment of female students”,
Buhari explained that the program initially commenced in seven states in the country and has now been extended to eighteen states across the country.
According to him, the exercise is aimed at providing infrastructural development support to our schools, especially where adolescent girls are dominant and without affecting the school’s teaching curriculum.
The major components of the school are to create new learning spaces in secondary schools through the construction of new blocks of classrooms and improving on the existing ones.
We are also fostering an enabling environment for girls, promoting social and behavioural change through communication, campaigns, engagement with traditional rulers and advocacy.
“We will educate our people to change their conception about educating our girls and empowering our girls with critical life skills knowledge for navigating adulthood and digital literacy.”
On the achievements of AGILE in the pioneer seven states he opined that about 1,614,545 adolescent girls have benefited so far in different categories which include a total of 6914 non-functional classrooms renovated and currently in use across the states.
While 84,000 teaching and learning materials were delivered to schools and in use for learning, adding that 6,714 WASH facilities were constructed with separate toilets for boys and girls.
“As part of the programs for the project this year in the state, a total number of 367 schools is expected to be renovated which includes 260 Junior Secondary Schools and 107 SeniorSecondary Schools.
“It also includes another 56 new schools already planned to be constructed in the state this year with both Junior and senior secondary schools having 28 numbers each.”
In his remark, the state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Alhaji Tukur Alkali, who was represented by Bashiru Ibrahim, Director Education Resource Centre, said the media roundtable is very vital in the dissemination of the right information.
In their goodwill messages, the Directors Planning, Research and Statistics of line ministries and parastatals pointed out the importance of media in achieving success, especially the struggle to improve girl-child education in Nigeria and thanked the Sokoto state government for its foresight on the role and importance of gender education in the state.
