“We were hit by insecurity, a situation that forced many schools to close, while some children got displaced with their parents, we refuse to be deterred by these challenges and we ensure we followed up each displaced child anywhere they resettle with their families and enrol them in schools in their new and temporary host communities.
“Prior to the Girls’ Education Project (GEP3), the Batsari motor park was always jam packed with girls hawking different wares for survival but we were able to move these children away from the streets back to school,” the Chairperson of Batsari Mothers Association, Mariam Wagini, narrated the ordeal of Batsari women who countered uncertainties to support education of girls in their communities.
“After our exposure to the importance of the girl-child education by GEP3, the Mothers’ Association in Batsari launched a campaign targeted at mothers within our various communities on the need to enrol their girls in schools we tell them the benefits we tell the families of these girls when we visit them that if they go to school their daughters will learn skills that can make them to be self reliant.
“In some villages many families want their daughters to marry at ages that were not fair, but when the mothers association visit them we always watch positive responses although we still encounter some level of resistance we visit again and most cases we persist because through the Girls’ Education Project (GEP3), we have come to realize the importance of the female child’s education, which cannot be overemphasized, presently I can tell you, we are even battling with over population of girls in some of our schools at the moment despite the insecurity challenges,” Wagini recounted.
She further narrated that “to complement the GEP3, we contribute funds among ourselves and sometimes reach out to prominent persons within our communities to raise funds to run the campaigns for parents to release their girl-child to go to school and we hope this project will further enhance the education of more girls.”
The experiences of mothers who are partnering with the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, under the Girls’ Education GEP 3 Project, funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and development Office (FCDO) of the UK to improve access ,retain as well facilitate smooth transition of girls across basic and post basic levels of education.
The life-changing FCDO UK initiative, was launched in Nigeria in May 2012 and it has been contributing to education of girls, improvement of their hygiene and providing social and economic opportunities for girls in Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Sokoto, Bauchi and Kano, states, all in the northern region of the country.
Evidently, the project has expanded access to education for girls, resulting in about 1.3 million girls having access to education and ensuring that they complete their education in the six befitting states.
Hafsat Wagini, a beneficiary of the GEP 3 project in Batsari Local Government said the project which re-enrolled her in Isa Keita college of Education, Dutsen-ma, has empowered her economically and equipped her with knowledge on personal hygiene.
“UNICEF is my mother, my father because it trained me in school and they also make sure I got a job as a teacher, I now inspire other girls in our community to embrace education because now I know my rights I am self reliant and I assist my husband in picking some bills for the family.”
UNICEF Senior Education Manager, Micheal Banda established in katsina State during a media dialogue on GEP3 Interventions & Some Key Results that safety contributes to access challenges facing the focal states where the projects were domesticated .
According to Banda, 56 percent of the entire Out of School children population are clustered in specific region of the country consisting 8 states, he said, “these areas are affected by banditry , insurgency ,communal clashes and climate change where insecurity challenges are higher the numbers of out of school children are also higher in the same region.”
He disclosed that on transition and retention challenges, a total of 1.9 million children were lost in between Primary one and primary six in these areas while 1.4 million between Primary six & Junior Secondary School 1.
Confirming the transition and retention challenge, Alh. Ibrahim Bello Ruma, the Chairman School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) Batsari LGA, disclosed that the SBMC and the Mothers’ Association met with the traditional leaders in Batsari and Executive Secretary of Education of the Local government to merge fleeing children from violent prone areas with children in safe schools.
“To show our own commitment and appreciation, we the SBMCs and the mothers’ association met with the traditional leaders in Batsari and the Executive Secretary of education in Batsari and ensured we merge fleeing children from violent prone areas with children in safe schools.”
Alhaji Ruma who said the GEP 3 project contributes to the growth of education of female children across the communities of Batsari said they remain undaunted by the situations they found themselves.
“We will continue to ensure the girls remain in schools and their teachers are also encouraged to give them the best and not to be distracted by the situations we find ourselves in,” said Bello
He mentioned that the provision of writing materials, school uniforms and cash support has further motivated many parents to release their female children who before now were used to generating funds for their families to support their income and facilitate resources for their male siblings to acquire modern education.
To confirm his narrative, the Executive Secretary of Education in Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State, Dr. Garba Salisu explained that through the intervention, some dilapidated schools which include Wagini primary school, Karere Primary school and Kandawa primary schools were renovated.
He said for fairness purposes, the funds meant for the schools were directly paid into a special account opened for the sole purpose in conjunction with the school’s SBMCs while those of the children were directly paid into the parents’ account.
“I met the GEP3 program running when I was posted here 3years ago and some of our schools in bad shape were renovated using funds from the project while parents got N20,000 per child to support them in getting their female children to school.
“All thanks to the Girls’ Education Project, we now have over 50% increase in the enrollment. You can imagine I visited a school at ‘Kukan Toro’ and I found in a class primary three thereabout with over 100 girls but only one boy in their midst.
“I was impressed that such a thing could happen in our time to find a single boy in the midst of dozens of girls all dressed neatly in the new uniforms I have received twice now.”
Dr. Garba described the SBMCs and the mothers’ association in Batsari LGA as a group of patriots dedicated to the educational development of their children especially the girl-child by working round the clock to ensure the smooth running of the project and provide constant feedback to his office on what is going on, what to improve on as well as when to do it.
Aside from the support for the girls, parents and the schools, the educationist also listed teachers as beneficiaries of the intervention.
Our teachers also benefit from this GEP3 intervention through training sessions such as the Reading and Numeracy Activity (RANA) program to further equip them with new skills for better output of the teaching and learning processes.
However, the challenge of families not being interested in sending their female wards to school is gradually been addressed especially with the series of campaigns by High Level Women Advocates HILWA, the Mother’s Association and the support of the School Based Management Committee who are being partly funded by the GEP 3 project.
For the sake of this investigative reporting on girl child education in Katsina State, the trip to Batsari was an eye opener to the reality of challenges created by insecurity in Northern Nigeria and Katsina State in particular.
The road to Batsari was lonely with the chauffeur cautioning that all my activities in the local government must not hold beyond 2pm, hence as a driver he would not ply the road back to Katsina same day due to fear of attack of bandits.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has continued to tackle the challenges of insecurity in Northern Nigeria with reports of peace returning to most states.
