Girls’ Education Program: UNICEF Urges Journalists to Advocate for Increased Funding, Improved Releases

By Bashir Hassan Abubakar

Towards improved Girls’ Education in Bauchi State and Nigeria at large, UNICEF Nigeria have urged Journalists to advocate for increased funding and adequate public resources to the education sector, especially adequate allocation, and the release of what has been appropriated.

The call was made by Dr. Tushar Rane, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Field Office Bauchi, in a good will message at the commencement of a three (3) days Media Dialogue on Girls’ Education under the Girls’ Education Project 3 (GEP 3), funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK on Wednesday, 20 July 2022 in Bauchi, the State Capital.

Dr. Rane said that despite the benefits of educating the girl child, over 10 million children in Nigeria — 60 percent of whom are girls — are out of school.

The Chief said that, as the UN agency for children, UNICEF collaborates with the government, partners and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to help children survive, thrive and attain their full potentials, and the media plays a very important role as a critical ally in helping UNICEF fulfil this mandate.

He pointed out that the situation with girls’ education has been worsened by attacks on schools which have made learning environment insecure and discouraged parents and caregivers from sending their wards, particularly girls, to schools.

“To ensure safe, conducive, inclusive, and enabling environment for all children to learn, we must work together to:
• Advocate for policies that promote access to education and in turn increase enrolment, retention, and transition for all children especially the girl child
• Advocate for increased budgetary allocation to education to ensure availability of modern-day ICT/technological innovations to promote digitalization of the education system and
• Advocate to ensure the availability of schools to promote continuous transition of students

According to Dr. Rane, “the GEP3 initiative was designed to enhance the enrollment drive for girls, improve learning outcomes for girls and strengthen government’s policy making for continued support to girl child education”.

He said that the project was implemented in 6 states in northern Nigeria — Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara.

While highlighting some of the major successes recorded under the GEP3, the Chief of Field office said, “the project effectively increased the enrollment of girls. A total of 650,265 girls enrolled into pre-primary and Integrated Qur’anic Education”.

“The GEP3 project implemented various capacity building initiatives for teachers. About 11,000 teachers received training on topics such as leadership skills to enable effective running of schools, Early Grade Reading pedagogies to enable early grasp of literacy skills and other key topics essential for effective service delivery.

Dr. Rane commended stakeholders, saying ,“UNICEF is grateful for the support from the government, and local partners, who made these successes possible, therefore getting more girls to school. We believe that the partnership will enhance the sustainability of the project’s successes beyond the implementation timeframe.

“We all — the government at national and sub-national levels, development partners, the media, parents, communities, traditional and religious leaders, — can achieve more by enrolling more girls in schools, and ensuring they complete their full education. Therefore, we must step up our investment in the younger generation, especially girls”, said Rane.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Chairman of Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Dr. Abubakar Surumbay Dahiru Bauchi described the Media Dialogue as timely and also expressed his hope that journalists would open their minds and scrutinize data that will be presented. This according to him, will equip the Journalists to give accurate information that could trigger Government into taking informed decisions regarding challenges around Girls’ education in Bauchi State and other States that are implementing the GEP 3.

Represented by permanent commissioner 1, Idris Ahmed Hardawa, the Bauchi SUBEB Chairman said the State is committed to sustaining the Girls’ Education program and that over 100 Million is being kept specifically for that, for the rest of the year 2022.

Our correspondent reports that during Day One of the Media Dialogue, presentations were made on “Why educating girls is important”, Girls’ Education in Bauchi State: GEP3 Interventions and Results, and “Funding Girls’ Education in Northern Nigeria: Interventions and Key Results of GEP3.

Other Topic presented was “Sustaining Child’s Rights media advocacy beyond workshops and trainings.