The Katsina State government has re-emphasized its commitment to the furtherance of girl-child education in the state, in regards to enrollment, retention, completion of secondary education as well as transition to higher levels of education.
Communication Officer, Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment, (AGILE) Project, Linda Irabor disclosed this in a statement issued earlier in the week.
According to the statement, Katsina State Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, reinstated the state’s commitement recently at the Government House when a delegation from the National Project Coordinating Unit, (NPCU) of the AGILE Project and the World Bank paid him a working visit.
Irabor explained that the NPCU-World Bank team visited Katsina State as part of its biannual Implementation Support Mission (ISM), to ascertain the State’s level of project implementation, with the view of giving proper guidance and support.
The Katsina State Governor said that his administration in an effort to improve the standard of secondary education in Katsina state, had put the necessary measures in place like the qualifying examination to ensure that graduates of secondary schools were well-learned and productive members of the society.
Masari, who pledged his support to the AGILE Project in the State, said that the present focus of his administration was to get Out-of-School children, especially girls and young married girls, re-enrolled in school and financially empower them through skills acquisition.
In her remarks, the AGILE Project Task Team Leader (TTL), Aisha Garba, commended the State’s level of project implementation as she noted that there had lots of improvement since the Bank’s previous visit.
Despite the improvements, she made suggestions on areas that need more governmental efforts.
The Task Team Leader suggested that the process of qualifying examinations for secondary school students should be made all inclusive and digitalized, taking cues from countries with similar peculiarities as Nigeria.
Garba noted that many students who failed the qualifying exams and those who could not afford the fees drop out of school, thereby worsening the State’s Out- of -School children index.
The Task Team Leader also suggested that the State collaborates with the World Bank on the establishment of skills acquisition centres for secondary schools, and young married girls in the state.
The AGILE Project’s Deputy National Coordinator, Mrs. Ajanigo Abuka, who represented the National Project Coordinator, Mrs. Amina Buba Haruna, commended Katsina State on its impressive level of project implementation, and the judicious use of resources to achieve the Project’s objectives.
Part of the facilities inspected by the NPCU-World Bank team were the proposed sites for construction of new schools, renovated school buildings and classrooms, hostels, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene,(WASH) facilities, etc.
The team also scrutinized the School Based Management Committees (SBMCs’) utilization of allocated resources, to ensure that they were in accordance with the stipulations of the Federal Ministry of Education and the World Bank.
The AGILE Project is a World Bank- assisted project of the Federal Government aimed at improving secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls in the current implementing states of Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Plateau.
