Stakeholders develop strategies to promote girl child education in Kaduna

Stakeholders in the education sector on Monday developed advocacy strategies and influencing plans to promote girl child education and second chance education initiative across Kaduna State.

The strategies were developed in Kaduna at a meeting supported by Kaduna Basic Education Mechanism (KADBEAM), in collaboration with Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL).

Mr. Martins Dangwa of the Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment, and Development, said that the total public primary school enrolment was 1.8 million, of which 882,411 were girls, representing 48 percent.

Dangwa said that the figure was based on the state’s Annual School Census (ASC) 2018/2019.

He added that the enrolment in public Junior Secondary schools was 297,139 out of which 142,021 were girls, also representing 48 percent of the total enrolment.

He pointed out that while the enrolment was impressive, a transition from primary to junior secondary school had remained a challenge.

According to him, the ASC shows that 297,139 transits to junior secondary school out of the 1.8 million enrolments in public primary schools, meaning that 1.5 million dropped out along the line.

“Also, out of the 882,411 girl child enrolment in public primary school, only 142,021 transited to junior secondary schools, while 740,390 dropped out for various reasons as indicated by the ASC.

“This is why community-led advocacy to promote girl-child education is critical to ensure that the girl child is in school and learning to reach their full potential in life.”

Mr. Istifanus Akau of PERL said that the Kaduna State Government has demonstrated high commitment to transforming the education sector as evidenced by the annual budgetary allocation above the UNESCO recommendation.

Akau explained that the state government had introduced the Second Chance Education program to provide further learning opportunities for the girl child that dropped out of school particularly due to early marriage.

He added that the government had also introduced an initiative called Edu-Marshall initiative to enforce compulsory school attendance to combat truancy and return children to school.

According to him, PERL, a governance program, being funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office is supporting girl child education in Kaduna state.

“The UK is working towards contributing to the global commitment to get 40 million girls into education and 20 million more girls reading by age 10.

“This is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of achieving inclusive and quality education for all as one of the powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development.”

Earlier, Mr. Fine Ocholi of Caring Culture, said that the objective of the advocacy strategies and influencing plan was to promote girl-child access to learning pathways and opportunities by citizens at the community level.

Ocholi added that the stakeholder’s dialogue was also to create awareness on girl education and the second chance initiative and strengthen advocacy on free education.

He said that the meeting was also organized to develop an advocacy plan for a clear implementation guideline for the second chance initiative.