We are targeting enrolment of 500,000 school girls in 5yrs — Yobe AGILE coordinator

Abdullahi Dahiru Bula is the project coordinator of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE-AF) in Yobe State. In this interview, he speaks on the challenges of girls’ education in the state and the plan to boost the enrolment. Briefly, tell more about this AGILE initiative Just as the name implies, it is […]

Abdullahi Dahiru Bula is the project coordinator of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE-AF) in Yobe State. In this interview, he speaks on the challenges of girls’ education in the state and the plan to boost the enrolment.

Briefly, tell more about this AGILE initiative

Just as the name implies, it is an intervention by the state government that has the support of the World Bank. It was a credit obtained from the World Bank for implementing this project over five years.

The objective is to increase secondary school education opportunities for girls. This includes the opportunities for economic empowerment in addition to the knowledge they are acquiring in the schools and this intends to have life skills, digital skills, and all the necessary skills to develop the human capital, especially in our girls.

• Abducted Kebbi district head dies in captivity, 8 others rescued
• Cameroon’s 91-year-old President Biya in good health, gov’t says

So, it is called adolescent girls because our priority is to see the completion of at least secondary school education by our girls. We find out that due to many factors, girls don’t complete their secondary education in this part of the country.

They might start, but hardly complete. That is why sometimes if you are to look at the enrolment in the first year and compare it with retention in the final year, you would find out there is a vast gap which is an indication that along the way, some have dropped as a result of economic, cultural and other factors. So this project is here to see if we can support our girls to at least finish secondary education in our society.

Is the initiative only for primary and secondary education or up to the higher level?

The project is only for secondary education. If you see us supporting those in primary six, as we are doing in the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), it is to see them proceeding to junior secondary schools. So all our concern is to see at least secondary education for the girls; let them complete their secondary education because that is the foundation for them to further their education and that will be the basic minimum requirement for any other contribution in society.

Even if politicians are to contest whatever position, what is requested is only the secondary school certificate. So that’s to tell you that nationally when you have the secondary education, you have the potential to be whoever you want to be and at least that is basic for those who want to further their education. 

What are the challenges of girl-child education in Yobe State?

I think the challenges are multiple if I can say, because some challenges have to do with the economy, some have to do with perception and  availability of space for the girls.

Firstly, the economic factors play a very key and important role because some parents would prepare to send their girls to schools but for economic situation and in some instances you will find out they prepared to send the boys because their assumption is that the education for boys would be more important than the girls who after all would be married off.

So, if the economic hardship is met, some parents would be prepared to send the guys and leave the girls behind for economic reasons.

Secondly, the issue of perception about moral corruption; some parents assume girls who are going to school sometimes might be morally corrupted which might not be the case in many instances because even girls who are hawking in the streets, you would find out that they engage in some other immoral activities.

Thirdly, another issue has to do with the availability of learning spaces. Some people will think you are not supposed to build schools because the schools are already there but they might not know that there are some gaps in the schools’ existence, especially after the abduction of some girls in some schools just what we have seen in other parts of the country. Some parents become so sceptical; some are so afraid to even allow their girls in the boarding schools.

So that fear discourages other parents who cannot find a day girls’ schools around and prefer to keep their children at home or send them to Islamiyya schools. 

This is why we have a provision of building 50 secondary schools for girls and annual enrolment of not less than 100,000 for five years because where you have new schools you should expect that the enrolment will increase.

So in short, we are to build 50 secondary schools for girls in strategic locations and enrol 500,000 girls in the next five years across the 17 local government areas of Yobe State.  

How do you intend to achieve these despite the obvious challenges?

Well, in this project we are trying to see that we solve these issues of the economy, by supporting selected girls with some stipends because we are supporting them through the conditional cash transfer for those who are in primary 6 about to go to JSS 1. You know when they finish primary school, moving to junior secondary schools they might need to change uniforms, books, and other things.

So that transition is sometimes very difficult for some parents, and sometimes if care is not taken, some children might abandon the school there. 

Without giving them support they would end up hawking on the streets for the survival of the family but if you give them some cash component, it might be more than what they are earning. We have selected the children who would be given N15,000 stipends termly to encourage the enrolment.

We also involved traditional institutions by seeking their support and advice to encourage enrolment. You know the traditional institutions are key when it comes to decision-making for parents to send their kids to school. 

You know, the traditional institutions had been custodians of directing families to send their children to school around the 60s and 70s or even before the advent of colonial masters, you would find emirates directing people from their domain to send their children to school. Some people were even sanctioned by the emirate councils if they didn’t send their kids to schools and people respected them so much.

We are also engaging religious leaders and also engaging civil society organisations who are engaged in education and other activities.