Kaduna State Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Project- AGILE is complimenting the state Government in improving education infrastructure in over five hundred and fifty schools within the state.
The State Project Coordinator Hajiya Maryam Sani Dangaji stated this during a town hall meeting with community stakeholders, representatives of Civil Society Organizations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and Traditional and religious institutions in Kaduna.
Hajiya Maryam Sani Dangaji said in the last 8 months the AGILE project had prioritized the provision of Wash facilities to include clean toilets and potable water supply to secondary schools across the 23 LGAs of the state, adding that intensive renovations of school infrastructure facilities had also taken place.
She explained that AGILE was a World Bank support project that had continued to do its utmost in improving the lives of the girl child in Kaduna and other places as may be the case.
“A total Number of five hundred and seven toilets and five hundred and fourteen classrooms were renovated, while one thousand five hundred and fifty five toilets were constructed respectively,”
“We also renovated sixty boreholes, three laboratories,two examination halls and forty nine offices while one hundred and thirty six boreholes were drilled; and a perimeter fence of one thousand two hundred and fifty meters was constructed, with another procurement of twenty four thousand and sixty four furnitures, within the last eight months” Hajiya Maryam noted.
The State Project Coordinator explained that the World Bank Funded project had also introduced the digital literacy program to empower girls with skills that gives opportunity to find means of livelihood aimed at building their confidence for self reliance.
Hajiya Maryam Sani Dangaji added that in the area of scholarship, the AGILE project was providing conditional cash transfer to most poor and vulnerable adolescent households.
“with the scholarship, the World Bank intends that the enrollment, retention, transition, and completion rate of the girl child will improve and as an encouragement, the Bank is providing the mothers/caregivers of these girls with green clean cookstoves to discourage sending them during school hours to get firewood for the family”,she said.
The Coordinator insisted that benefiting schools must ensure standard work specification was done as the World Bank had no tolerance for substandard work, saying that the Adolescent Girls Initiative project has approval from between twelve million to twenty million Naira at the moment.
Speaking to newsmen, the Director Promotion and Discipline of the Teacher’s Service Board Mr Set Magaji Ali appreciated the contribution that AGILE was making in complimenting the state government effort.
“We will create more sensitization awareness to schools that are far from the capital to understand the requirements needed to benefit from such wonderful program as can be seen ,in particular the scholarship scheme which was already returning back students to classroom and in particular the physically challenge“,he said.
Radio Nigeria reports that about four hundred participants across the state participated in the town hall meeting geared towards getting their feedback on the activities implemented by AGILE and present the scorecard for the past eight months.
It also seeks to find best avenues for continuous collaboration and advancement of the project where necessary inputs will be welcome.
Cov/Teddy Daniel