More than 3 million girls have now been enrolled in secondary schools under the Adolescent Girls Initiative For Learning and Empowerment, AGILE.
AGILE, the Federal Government Initiative in partnership with the World Bank is currently running in Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Plateau and Katsina States and has also successfully renovated over five thousand classrooms.
The National Project Coordinator of AGILE in Nigeria, Mrs Amina Buba Haruna, made these known in Abuja during the launch of a National Campaign, tagged ‘Madubi’, held to further boost the increase of girls in basic schools.
According to Mrs Buba Haruna, the campaign is targeted at raising awareness for girl child education in Nigeria as well as demand for accountability on policies, commitments, and officials towards girls’ education.
She also stated that the campaign was held to establish a sustainable partnership framework aimed at igniting behavioural change amongst concerned stakeholders by proper framing of issues related to girl child education.
“Madubi is a title for the National Campaign on AGILE that will help us present the initiative better to the society, the clergymen, the traditional rulers and the larger society.
“Our aim through this campaign is to advocate more on outside society on issues hindering girl child education in Nigeria so that the society will know that Madubi which in Hausa language means Mirror, is to aid the members of the society to see the girl in the mirror as themselves, their daughter or a girl child very close to them,“ She added.
AGILE IN 7 STATES
Speaking on the Status of AGILE across the 7participating states, Mrs Haruna said that over 3 million girls have been enrolled in secondary schools under AGILE Project while five thousand classrooms have been renovated.
AGILE is an initiative of the Federal Government supported by the World Bank to reduce the gender gap in secondary education completion rate and labour market transition among adolescent girls between the ages of 10 to 20 years in Nigeria.
She hinted that the initiative is now proceeding to the construction stage in the participating states.
The National Project Coordinator also disclosed that 11 more states are joining the AGILE project in Nigeria by June 2023.
Khadiyat Bello, who spoke on behalf of Madubi said there was the need to influence the girl’s and women’s potential in the society at large, hence the need for the project.
Bello said that Nigeria was faced with a gender learning crisis, she added that 60 per cent of the out-of-school children in Nigeria are girls and less than 30 per cent of primary school girls transit to secondary school.
She said this has affected the attention and retention rate of the girl child.
”Adolescence is a critical stage in human development, more so for girls. After the early years, adolescence 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-sectoral issues, it addresses the concerns on the demand and supply ends of the education divide.
”It addresses the issues of access and capacity, providing financial scholarships and conditional cash transfers to send girls to school,” she said.
She, therefore, called on stakeholders to ensure that all girls go to school and are educated to project society in a good light.
The AGILE partners see Madubi, as Education, they describe it as a mirror through which society should view and not just a reflection of a girl child’s potential, but that of society.
The concept of adopting Madubi is to acknowledge the role of females as multipliers of society and the first point of contact in learning.
It, however, sub themed: the launch as: “Our Future is a mirror of the opportunities afforded to the girl child today.”
