By Carl Umegboro
Education is one of the most important investments a country can make in its future.
It is in the light of this that the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) supports
developing countries to ensure that every child receives a quality education.
Invariably, education is a powerful agent of change, and improves health and
livelihoods, contributes to social stability alongside drives long-term economic
growth. Aside featuring as number four of the seventeen (17) Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, the success of all the other goals is
dependent on it.
The Girls for Girls strategy fondly tagged G4G is an initiative of the third Phase of the
Girls’ Education Project (GEP-3) being implemented in northern Nigeria through a
collaboration between UNICEF, UBEC, FME and NMEC with funding from the United
Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID). The goal of GEP-3 is to
support the Government of Nigeria to expand access to one million girls in northern
States where a large number of girls are out of school. The project currently covers
the 5 States in the North of Nigeria viz. Bauchi, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara,
with the highest proportion of out of school girls.
It is also targeted to give a boost to girls’ acquisition of skills for livelihoods. The
project has three (3) key outputs which include increased enrolment and retention
for girls in basic education; improved capacity of teachers to deliver effective
learning for girls and improved governance to strengthen girls’ education. The G4G
mentoring strategy is essentially intended to contribute to outputs 1 and 3 of the
GEP3 programme.
As committed stakeholders and partners in progress, Niger State Universal Basic
Education Board (NSUBEB), Niger State Agency for Mass Education (NSAME), State
Ministry of Education (SMoE), and the Niger State College of Education (NCoE) have
commendably continued to contribute in their respective capacity to boosting girls’
education.
Likewise, HilWA, SBMC/CBMC and Mothers’ Associations deserve encomiums. In
fact, the need to support girls to enroll, remain and complete basic education
informed the establishment of Mothers’ Associations in schools in Niger State.
Laudably, the members alongside volunteer mentors were at the forefront of
creating awareness and sensitizing community members with recommended
materials during the peak of COVID-19.
From record, UNICEF GEP-3 Niger State sumptuously supported the development of
communication and educative materials to communities within the nine
intervention LGAs in the State for prevention and containment of COVID-19
pandemic. With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lock
down, the state with support from UNICEF developed a costed education COVID-19
contingency action-plan to ensure continuous learning for children. It also
facilitated house-to-house sensitization on COVID-19 and the provision of technical
assistance to partners in all intervention LGAs and the state level respectively.
The record also shows the Girls’ Education Project (GEP-3) in the state which
recently moved into its 9 th year has made remarkable impacts, and particularly
witnessed a great leap in project implementation as the expansion LGAs (Edati,
Kontagora and Shiroro) came fully on-stream last year, 2019. The period witnessed
greater involvement of youth whose capacity was improved on advocacy skills
which enabled them to organise several rallies and engagement of political leaders
to demand for safe and quality education in Niger state.
Key achievements include advocacy for Girl’s Education in Niger state that received a
visible boost through a capacity building exercise for youths on advocacy skills and
engagement with political leaders on increased demand for safe and quality basic
education. Furthermore, there’s a boost on number of facilitators providing guidance
and training during He-4-She training session. Similarly, six HiLWA members from the
state had their capacities developed in leadership skills and aspirations for leadership
roles in the state.
In the period under review, 3,331 girls acquired basic knowledge on leadership and
life skills acquisition for girls to build their confidence in advocating for their rights to
be educated while 3,182 boys under the ‘He-4-She’ programme had their capacities
built on positive masculinity to support girls to enrol, stay in school, transit and
complete education. This was achieved through series of trainings delivered in the
review period. A number of 7,570 girls were registered and are participating in 460
established ‘Girls-4-Girls’ (G4G) groups across 9 LGAs in the 400 schools in Niger
states with capacity of all G4G members built on leadership, life skills and vocational
skills either through organised state level training or mentorship provided at school
level.
Also, a total number of 582 female mentors were empowered with knowledge and
skills on monitoring and mentoring of ‘G4G’ groups across the 400 schools in 9 LGAs
of Agaie, Edati, Gbako, Kontangora, Mariga, Mashegu, Munya, Rafi and Shiroro. In
addition, 493 parents across the 6 LGAs were also sensitized on the importance of
educating the girl child while129 girls were successfully enrolled back to school
during the IDGC, last year. Also, 25 mothers acquired improved knowledge and
capacity to advocate and support completion of quality education of their children
through routine school and community support visit. (Quarter 2, Year 8- July-
September, 2019).
To crown it all, a total number of 1,081 girls from 12 Schools (6 Junior Secondary
Schools and 6 Primary Schools) across 6 GEP-3 focus LGAs were sensitized on the
need to overcome distractions, stay in school and remain focused while in school to
achieve success and secure a better future for themselves during the 2019
International Day of Girl Child (IDGC). This success reflects visibly in Zumba Model
Primary School, Zumba in Shiroro LGA. The pupils’ boldness, brilliance, fervour and
astuteness speak volume.
An American poet and bestselling author, Mattie J.T. Stepanek once said; “Unity is
strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be
achieved”. Indeed, teamwork is the most efficient and effective way to achieve a
common goal or complete a task without much stress.
