AGILE project: Katsina pledges commitment to girl-child education

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Katsina Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari

By Chika Nwachukwu

The Katsina State Government has pledged its commitment to the enrollment, retention, completion of secondary education especially for girls in the state.

Katsina State Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, stated this at the Government House, Katsina 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.

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.

Masari said that his administration in an effort to improve the standard of secondary education in Katsina state, has put the necessary measures in place like the qualifying examination to ensure that graduates of secondary schools are well-learned and productive members of the society.

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-Schools children especially girls and young married girls, re-enrolled in schools and financially empower them 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 has lots of improvement since the Bank’s previous visit.

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 fail the qualifying exams and those who cannot afford the fees drop out of school, thereby worsening the State’s Out- of -School children index.

Communication Officer, AGILE, Linda Irabor revealed that 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 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.