By Sule Aliyu Bauchi
The Bauchi State Coordinator of the AGILE Project, Ali Sule Gar has stated that the AGILE Project which aims at improving secondary education opportunities among girls in the state intends to use a comprehensive approach to address constraints that hinders adolescent girls from completing secondary school.
The State Coordinator stated this during a Bi-Annual Media Roundtable Engagement on the implementation of the World Bank Assisted Project tagged Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) in Bauchi State.
Ali Sule Gar also said that the Project will achieve the objectives through the use of the school, family and community structures to empower adolescent girls.
The Coordinator further said that the strategy approach of the AGILE Project will consist of interventions aimed at keeping girls in school and also provide opportunities for them to acquire critical skills, which will in turn empower them to enroll, stay, complete and possibly transit to tertiary level of education.
He said that supporting women’s education is vital for national progress, adding that the AGILE project promotes the transition and upgrading of Junior Secondary Schools to Senior Schools, benefiting many households
Speaking earlier, the Bauchi State Commissioner of Education Dr. Jamila Muhammad Dahiru said that Adolescent Girls in the State are facing challenges which are excluding them from having unhindered access to education.
She noted that some of the identified challenges as well as those that are salient are preventing those of them that have started schooling from completing secondary education.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ali Babayo, the Commissioner said that the roundtable media engagement was another effort by the Bauchi State Government in carrying the media along, as key partners, in changing the indices of adolescent education in the State.
Jamila Dahiru said that the State Government is doing all it takes to change the face of education for the better, emphasising that, the State, keying into the AGILE Project is a pointer to that resolve.
In her remarks, Communication officer of the Project, Halima Ibrahim Dimis assured that, all inputs collated from the breakout session and, other contributions made, will be carefully filtered to see those that align with the Project’s objectives and incorporate it in the implementation strategy.
While interacting with the participants, who all described the roundtable meeting as innovative and engaging, Halima Ibrahim Dimis expressed her profound gratitude to the participants for the enthusiasm demonstrated during the meeting, describing the gesture as heartwarming and encouraging.
She then said that the State Project Implementation Unit of the AGILE Project will not take that demonstration of commitment for granted but will use it as a means of fostering impactful relationship for the success of the project.
During the course of interaction, the participants who are Managers of both Federal, State and, Private media Organisations in the State as well as other practicing Journalists cutting across Radio, Television, Print, Online and New Media.
The Media Executives and practicing Journalists identified poverty as one of the leading causes of poor Secondary School enrollment of Adolescent Girls in the State just as they also unanimously agreed that the decay in schools infrastructure has contributed to making enrolment drive of adolescent girls into schools unattractive.
At a breakout session during the meeting, other underlying challenges militating the enrollment of Adolescent Girls into school, identified by the media practitioners that came to fore include: inadequate WASH facilities in schools, insecurity in school environments, early marriage, weak community engagement.
The participants then urged the State AGILE Project Implementation Unit to leverage on the media, using their various channels, for continuous awareness creation and advocacies, through reportages, to address some of challenges identified as proffered solutions.
The issue of safe space in the schools was also stressed considering the fact that every Girlchild requires a safe space in order to feel free to learn particularly in terms of toilet and during her menstrual process.
They agreed that with such safe space adequately provided, the Adolescent girls will not only start school but be comfortable to stay around and complete it.
The AGILE Project Coordinating office promised to make the media roundtable engagement a constant thing in order to achieve the set objectives of the project in the state
