Bauchi state government to pay female pupils to attend school

The Bauchi State Government will pay 16,260 girls in secondary schools across the state, N5,000 and NN10,000 per term, a project said to be part of its policy to promote girls’ attendance in school, which is the conditional payment and part of the state’s Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme.

Penpushing reports that the Commissioner of Education, Jamila Dahiru, made this known to journalists adding that the government will pay girls in junior secondary schools, N5000 per term and those in senior secondary school will be paid N10,000 per term.

The Commissioner who also doubles as the coordinator of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) explained that the programme is aimed at doing things differently to improve education in the state.

‘The project aimed at assisting the students who dropped out of school due to economic problems. 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’, Dahiru said.

‘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.

Penpushing further reports that the commissioner said the first component of the programme aims to achieve a ‘Safe and accessible learning source.”, adding that apart from paying pupils to attend schools, the 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’, the commissioner stated.

‘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’,Dahira said.

The Commissioner 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).

Penpushing also reports that Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme  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.

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