Katsina govt reaffirms commitment to girl-child education

THE Katsina State government has expressed commitment to the furtherance of girl-child education in the state, through increased enrollment, retention, completion of secondary education as well as transition to higher levels of education.

Katsina State governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, spoke when a delegation from the National Project Coordinating Unit (NPCU) of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment, (AGILE) project and the World Bank paid him a working visit, at the Government House.

While speaking against the backdrop of the huge impact of education on the socio- economic and cultural wellbeing of a society, Masari said 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 are well-learned and become productive members of the society.

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 governor, who pledged his support to the AGILE project in the state, said that the present focus of his administration is to get out-of-school children, especially the girls and young married girls, re-enrolled in schools and financially empowered through skills acquisition.

In her remarks, the AGILE project’s Task Team Leader (TTL), Aisha Garba, commended the state’s level of project implementation as she noted that there had been a lot of improvement since the Bank’s previous visit.

Despite the improvements, she made suggestions on areas that needed more governmental efforts.

The Task Team Leader suggested that the process of qualifying examinations for secondary school students should be made to be all-inclusive and digitised, taking cues from countries with similar peculiarities as Nigeria.

Garba noted that many students who failed the qualifying examinations and those who could not afford the fees drop out of school, thereby worsening the state’s out-of-school children index.

She 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 inpected 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, among others.

The team also scrutinised the School Based Management Committee (SBMC)’s utilisation of allocated resources, to ensure that they were in accordance with the stipulations of the Federal Ministry of Education and 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 namely Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Plateau.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

PICTORIAL EXPLAINER: How To Identify Fake New Naira Notes