Kaduna State government has called on parents, guardians, teachers and other stakeholders to support the girl-child to access free and compulsory quality education to bridge the gender and social divides amongst the state children.
Deputy Governor of the state, Dr Hadiza Balarabe stated this at the opening ceremony of the induction training of 2000 recruited teachers under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment AGILE Project with the themed “Building an Effective New Generation Teacher in Kaduna.
Dr Hadiza Balarabe said the state government would continue to initiate and support any project that benefits its citizens.
While government would continue to count on the support and partnership of development partners, Civil Society Organizations, Non-governmental Organizations, and Education financiers to improve education quality service delivery.
According to Dr Balarabe, since the administration came on board, it had demonstrated strong political will to improve the standard of education in the state.
“Accordingly, we have consistently committed an average of 27.3 percent of the state’s budget to education from 2016-2022 which is above the UNESCO benchmark of 26 percent”.
Dr Hadiza Balarabe pointed out that, the important of girl-child education cannot be over-emphasized, stressing that, girls constitute about half of the population of children.
“Many factors are responsible for this. There are cultural factors that privilege the boy-child education against that of the girl-child and general factors that limit child education which further constrict the opportunities of the girl-child”
“These include limited number of schools, inadequate access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities, poor education infrastructure, high cost of private schools, and many others”
“A school feeding programme is being implemented to increase enrolment, ensure consistent attendance at school and guarantee improved nutrition for Boarding Secondary Schools and Islamic, Quranic and Tsangaya Education (IQTE) and primary school pupils”
“About 45% of the boarding schools are for girls only. The government also established a school for the Gifted and Talented in order to accord gifted and talented children the opportunity to learn at their own pace”
“Our government has also provided 800 computer desktops, 7,000 ICT tablets and built ICT laboratories in schools. Twenty-five schools were equipped with computer laboratories in 2021 and we are currently working on 17 model schools.10. With all the resources (both human and finance) put in place”.
She expressed appreciation to the Federal Government and the World Bank for their unrelenting effort in ensuring that the girl-child does not remain a societal burden but positive change-makers.
AGILE is a World Bank-supported programme designed by the Ministry of Education to address constraints the girl child faces in accessing and completing basic education.
The opening ceremony took place at the Kaduna State University KASU attended by senior government officials, the Acting Vice Chancellor of KASU and heads of the State Tertiary Institutions as well as representatives of Development partners and Civil Society Organizations working in Kaduna State.
AMINU DALHATU