Girls Education Project Phase 3, GEP3, is enhancing education opportunities for girls in some parts of Northern Nigeria.
Among the northern part that benefited from the project is Danbatta, in Kano State, which records massive success in ensuring girls in the community are educated.
The project drives different intervention programmes in Primary schools and selected integrated Qur’anic Schools (Islamiyah) implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK.
One of the selected schools is Khadija Memorial Primary and Islamiya school. The Headmaster, Zakari Sani said due to intervention project, the school experienced an increase in the number of girls’ enrolment, especially orphans who previously couldn’t afford to pay school fees.
Sani said; “With the GEP3 intervention, the number of girls coming to our school has seriously increased due to free funds received from UNICEF, the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira given to the school as intervention quarterly.”
“Through the funds we received, we have been able to renovate our toilets and drainages in addition to writing materials,”he said.
On the intervention, the Chairman, Khadija Memorial School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) Ibrahim Adamu stated that “the project provides for the children and we, the members of the SBMCs. We also enjoy training sessions.
“If this intervention is sustained, I assure you it will go a long way in addressing the issue of the girl-child roaming in the streets and not going to school.”
A mother and member of the Khadija Memorial School’s SBMC, Hajiya Salma Audi said parents enroll their girls to school because the fees and other school materials, have been taken care of by UNICEF through the GEP3 Project.
“We are happy at the school’s committee level seeing how parents now rush to enroll their girl-child who are the mothers and foundation of every society to acquire both Islamic and western education under formal and desirable atmosphere,” she stated.
These were made known in a statement made available to Voice of Nigeria by the School’s authorities, during the field visit.
Mercy Chukwdiebere
