By Ayodele Oni
Bauchi State Government has identified 16,260 girls in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in the state for conditional cash transfer to motivate them.
The measure is to reduce rate of out-of-school and encourage Girl child education in the Bauchi State.
It will also to encourage the girls to attend classes and graduate under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project.
The State Commissioner for Education and Project Coordinator of AGILE, Jamila Dahiru disclosed this while interacting with journalists in Bauchi.
She explained that each of the girls in JSS 1-3 will be given N5,000 while those in SS 1-3 will receive N10,000 every term in order to encourage them to always return to school until graduation.
The commissioner pointed out that there will be digital education programme in order to empower the girls with skills, which will be useful to them in the future.
According to her, the AGILE project is aimed at doing things differently in order to achieve an improved education sector through effective and efficient learning process in a conducive environment.
Dahiru explained that the project was basically aimed at assisting students that dropped out of school due to economic issues with a view to give them the chance to go back to school and complete the second stage of education.
She further disclosed that the target was aimed at the poorest of the poor who do not have any means of payment of school fees and other requirements.
The commissioner said that mechanism has been put in place to determine those that will qualify, adding that apart from boosting enrolment of the girl child in school, the AGILE project will ensure that the standard and quality of education would not decline.
“The second component will be ‘fostering enabling environment for girls’ under which promoting behavioural change through communication campaigns, engagement with traditional rulers and advocacy.
“It will provide girls with critical life skills and knowledge for navigating adulthood and digital literacy at all learning platforms as well as providing financial support to poor households under the conditional cash transfer.
“There is also the system for sustainability and national strategy for girls as well as providing data for EMIS and other things that will make the project successful in state.”
