The National Project Coordinator, Adolescent Girls Initiative For Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), Mrs Amina Haruna, says over 3 million girls have been enrolled in secondary schools under its project to reduce out-of-school number.
Haruna said this in Abuja on Wednesday during the launch of a National Campaign , tagged ‘Madubi’, to further boost the increase of girls in school.
AGILE, which is a Federal Government initiative in partnership with the World Bank, is currently running in Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Plateau and Katsina States.
The campaign, targeted at increasing enrolment and retention among girls, is aimed to improve secondary education of girls in the focal states.
”The Madubi is a national campaign we want to advocate for the outside society on the importance of girl-child education that is why we are adopting this, and it means a mirror of a child.
” Over 3 million children have been enrolled in the project, we have renovated over 5,000 classrooms and we are now going on constructions of classrooms.
” We also have the financial incentives where it will allow retention of girls in school as well as financial incentives for beneficiaries and caregivers,” she said.
Haruna added that 11 other states would be joining the seven participating states in June to further give more girls access to education.
Meanwhile, Khadiyat Bello, who spoke on behalf of Madubi said there was need to influence the girls and women potential in the society at large, hence the need for the project.
Bello said that Nigeria was faced with gender learning crisis as 60 per cent of the out-of-school children were girls and less than 30 per cent of primary school girls transit to secondary school.
She said this had affected attention and retention rate of the girls child.
She said there was need to acknowledge the role of females as multipliers of society and the first point of contact in learning.
”Our future is a mirror of the opportunities afforded to the girl child today.
”Education is ‘Madubi’, a mirror or looking glass through which we can view not just a reflection of the girl child’s potential but that of the entire society.
”Adolescence is a critical stage in human development, more so for girls. After early years, adolescent and secondary education are the periods most capable of influencing the kind of woman and humans that they turn to become.
”Agile is one intervention tackling multi-secroral issues, it addresses the concerns on the demand and supply ends of education divide.
”It addresses the issues of access and capacity, providing financial scholarships and conditional cash transfer to send girls to school,” she said.
She, therefore, called on stakeholders to ensure that all girls go to school and are educated so as to project the society in a good light.