Bauchi State will give N5,000 and N10,000 every term to 16,260 females in secondary schools across the state as part of its initiative to encourage girls’ school attendance.
The state’s Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) program includes the conditional payment.
Jamila Dahiru, the Commissioner of Education who also serves as the coordinator of the AGILE program, informed media on Saturday that the government will give N5000 per term to females in junior secondary schools and N10,000 per term to girls in senior secondary schools.
Mrs. Dahiru stated that the AGILE program aims to do things differently in order to promote education in the state.
“The project aimed at assisting the students who dropped out of school due to economic problems,” Mrs Dahiru said.
“Those students have the chance to go back to school and complete the second stage of education.
“The target is the poorest of the poor who do not have any means of payment of school fees and other requirements, mechanism has been put in place to determine those that will qualify.
“Apart from boosting enrollment of the girl child in school, the AGILE project will ensure that the standard and quality of education did not decline but rather improved upon greatly as Teachers will be motivated and well equipped to impart knowledge on the students,” she added.
She said the first component of the programme aims to achieve a ‘Safe and accessible learning source.”
Apart from paying pupils to attend schools, the AGILE programme will also build new spaces for learning in secondary schools, improve existing infrastructure and recruit more teachers.
“The second component which is ‘fostering an enabling environment for girls’ promotes behavioural change through communication campaigns, engagement with traditional rulers and advocacy.
“Providing girls with critical life skills and knowledge for navigating adulthood and digital literacy at all learning platforms as well as providing financial support to poor households under the conditional cash transfer will be made effective,” Mrs Dahira narrated.
She said that the project’s third component is ‘system strengthening and project management,’ where the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) team must be very active including the technical and community through the School Base Management Committees (SBMCs).
AGILE is a World Bank-assisted project of the Federal Ministry of Education geared at improving secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls aged between 10 and 20.