1.4 m girls in Northern Nigeria access education through GEP3 funded project in 10 years

SELYA YARNAP,  Bauchi 

No fewer than 1.4 million girls in Northern Nigeria have accessed education through the Girl-Child Education(GEP3) project in 10 years, the United Nations Children Fund UNICEF has revealed.

The project is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom, UK with focus on the UNICEF Girl Education Project Phase 3, (GEP3) supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom (UK. The project was implemented in 6 states in Northern Nigeria — Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara.

The Chief, UNICEF Field Office, Bauchi, Dr Tushar Rane who was spoke during a Media Dialogue on Girls’ Education held at Chartwell Hotel, Bauchi on Wednesday, lamented that despite the benefits of education, the girl child, over 10 million children in Nigeria — 60 percent of whom are girls — are out of school.

He emphasized that the education of the girl child is critical to transforming communities, reducing inequalities, and strengthening economies saying that, “additionally, when we educate the girl child, child marriage and child mortality rates reduce” .

According to the UNICEF Chief, the situation with girls’ education has been worsened by attacks on schools which have made learning environment insecure and discouraged parents and caregivers from sending their wards, particularly girls, to schools.

The GEP3 initiative was designed to enhance the enrollment drive for girls, improve learning outcomes for girls and strengthen government’s policy making for continued support to girl child education.

He disclosed that UNICEF, with funding support from development partners, is collaborating with government to build the capacity of School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) and Community-Based Management Committees (CBMCs) on school safety and security, and to make communities more resilient.

“In Bauchi State, for example, through the Girls’ Education Project3 (GEP3) funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK. The project effectively increased the enrollment of girls with a total of 650,265 girls enrolled into pre-primary and Integrated Qur’anic Education”

“The Girl4Girl and HeForShe activities of the project empowered about 9,000 girls and boys in Bauchi state to use peer support mechanism to create demand for girl child enrollment in their communities. Strengthening the capacity of teachers is crucial for the retention of girl children who enroll in schools.

“The GEP3 project implemented various capacity building initiatives for teachers while a total of 11,000 teachers have received training on topics such as leadership skills to enable effective running of schools, Early Grade Reading pedagogies to enable early grasp of literacy skills and other key topics essential for effective service delivery.

“The project successfully strengthened school governance systems through the facilitation of eight annual school census, strengthening school record keeping, developing Local Education Sector Operational Plan to align with the state Education Sector Plan, and improving the functionality of SBMCs and CBMCs” he said

Dr. Tushar said that UNICEF is grateful for the support from the government, and local partners, who made these successes possible, therefore getting more girls to school.

“We believe that the partnership will enhance the sustainability of the project’s successes beyond the implementation timeframe”, he added.

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