John Shiklam in Kaduna
The Kaduna State Coordinator of Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, Maryam Dangaji, has disclosed that over 40,000 girls have enrolled in the programme.
In an interview with journalists on Friday in Kaduna, Dangaji said the girls also received conditional cash transfers of between N5,000 to N10,000 paid through their caregivers.
She added that a proposal for the increase in the amount will soon be submitted, considering the current economic realities.
Dangaji said the programme is targeted at the poor and vulnerable families who could not sponsor their girls to school, as well as young married women, who, for one reason or the other dropped out of school and desire to come back and complete their education.
According to her, AGILE is a World Bank project supported through the Federal Ministry of Education and is being implemented by Kaduna and 17 other states.
Dangaji said: “Essentially, what AGILE does in promoting adolescent girl education is to ensure that she has an improved secondary education.
“You find out that after completion of primary six, enrolling in secondary school is an issue for many girls, especially for those in the rural areas who are poor and vulnerable.
“Even when they enrol in Junior Secondary School, you hardly see them transit to the Senior Secondary School.
“Most worrisome is the fact that from SS1 to SS3 you see girls dropping out without writing their NECO or WAEC exams.
“So AGILE ensures that girls complete their secondary education to enable them have the requisite certificates to pursue higher education.”
She explained that the project is all encompassing, involving in a lot of activities that empowers adolescent girls to have life skills that will help them navigate successfully to adulthood.
“We ensure a conducive learning environment for girls. Research has shown that if there is no wash facility in the school, a girl can miss school for a whole period because of menstrual circle.
“We have instances where a girl is embarrassed and had to go home when she is on menstrual period.
“So we ensure that we provide conducive learning environment, we prioritize wash facilities – we provide borehole water and clean toilets… so the girls are comfortable studying.
“Even if they are having their menstrual period, they are good to come to school,” Dangaji said.
She added that this has led to increase in enrolment of girls in schools.
“We have renovated classrooms and provided furniture in schools. We have also given them digital literacy.
“What we are trying to do under the programme is to ensure that girls are able to operate simple mobile applications on the internet.
“They do simply presentations and marketing. These are skills that empower the girls,” she said.
According to her, “Survey has shown that poverty is responsible for girls dropping out of school.
“AGILE gives stipends to mothers of the girls who we call caregivers.
“Just to encourage them to go to school, we pay N5,000. We started with the transition classes.
“So far in Kaduna State, we targeted over 40,000 girls and we have been paying them this stipend of between N5,000 to N10,000.
“We intend to put a proposal for increase in the amount looking at the current economic realities.
“It has gone a long way to support vulnerable households to encourage them get their girls back to school.
“AGILE is a four-year programme; we have spent two years, we have the next two years.
“The programme provides opportunities for young married women, who, for one reason or the other, dropped out of school, to come back and complete their education.”
