AGILE: ICEADA promotes girls education at grassroots in 6 Kano LGAs

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

The ICEADA AGILE Project, aimed at promoting girls’ education at the grassroots level, has organized an Activity Feedback Workshop and Quarterly Meeting to assess the successes and challenges of the project across six local government areas in Kano State.

The local governments areas include: Bebeji, Kiru, Karaye, Madobi, Rogo, and Warawa.

Speaking at the event, Prof. M.B. Shitu, Team Leader and Project Manager, explained that the project was designed to engage key stakeholders in the selected local government areas to sensitize communities on the importance of enrolling girls in school.

He noted that participants of the workshop are Community Engagement Mentors selected from the six local governments.

“Their role is to engage directly with community members to promote girls’ enrollment in schools,” he said.

“Part of their responsibility is to carry out sensitization and mobilization campaigns within their communities. Our main concern is increasing the enrollment and retention of girls in secondary education. That’s why we introduced the Community Engagement Mentors—to collaborate with parents and local organizations in support of girls’ education,” Prof. Shitu added.

He also revealed that the project has recorded significant progress across the six LGAs, although a few challenges still persist and are currently being addressed.

“One of the aims of this workshop is to review the activities carried out in the last quarter and set new community goals to strengthen our campaign. We’ve also launched house-to-house awareness campaigns to tackle the issues affecting girls’ education in these communities,” he stated.

Participants expressed satisfaction with the project’s progress.

Lami Idris, a Community Mentor from Karaye LGA, shared her experience.

“We are going from house to house to educate people on the benefits of girls’ education. One of the major challenges we face is the lack of schools in some villages. Some girls have to walk long distances to reach school,” she said.

Abdullahi Balarabe Kiru, Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Kiru LGA, reported that data collected from the area showed over 40 girls are currently out of school. He affirmed that efforts are ongoing to address the issue.

In his remarks, Malam Nasiru Yusuf Ibrahim, Communication Officer of the AGILE Project, disclosed that 130 new schools will be constructed in Kano State to tackle the problem of out-of-school children.

He also highlighted insecurity and the destruction of school infrastructure as major challenges facing the education sector.