Emir of Dass addressing AGILE Team and Dass Emirate Council members during the Advocacy session at Dass.
By Abubakar Baba Ahmad.
The Emir of Dass Alhaji Usman Bilyaminu Othman has directed all District, Village and Settlement Heads under the emirate to ensure mass mobilisation of pupils and students in their areas of jurisdiction back to school towards meeting the number of Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment AGILE Project targeted beneficiaries.
According to the AGILE Technical Team, the Project which targets 20250 beneficiaries under its Conditional Cash Transfer CCT component has so far captured about seventeen thousand adolescent girls across the state.
The Emir gave the directive when he received the State AGILE Technical Team led by the Project Coordinator Malam Ali Sule Gar on an advocacy visit to his Palace at Dass.
Alhaji Usman Bilyaminu said as a sign of commitment towards achieving the set target, he will embark on oversight visits to ensure that academic activities are taking place, teachers are on ground to impart knowledge and parents allow their children to attend schools.
“We are going to play our part by making sure we engage in oversight supervision. We shall also engage our Settlement Heads to be going round their own areas of jurisdiction to make sure that all children eligible are enrolled and returned back to school”, the Monarch states.
While acknowledging the poor enrolment and attendance of children in schools across the council, the Emir identified poverty and the current economic situation as some of the factors hindering girls’ access to education.
He commended the project’s initiative especially in the area of building and renovating schools, providing cash incentives and skills trade to ensure they concentrate on their studies and become self reliant.
“We are optimistic with the agile support. We are going to see holistic improvement in the infrastructure, teaching and learning aids, and as well overall security of education within our communities”, the Emir restates.
Earlier, the AGILE Project Coordinator Malam Ali Gar said the visit was aimed at seeking the Emir’s support in mobilising his subjects to advocate for girls’ education, engage communities and reorient the people on the need to change their attitude towards prioritising the education of the girl child.
Malam Ali Gar who described traditional and religious leaders as gatekeepers of their communities, urged them to engage parents, women, youth and all segments of the society in continuous advocacy and sensitisation on the moral imperative of girl child education.
In a welcome address, the Education Secretary Dass LEA Malama Asiya Abubakar promised continued support in the area of monitoring and supervision to ensure success of the project.
….Students urged to sensitise parents, friends on Girl Child Education.
The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment AGILE Project in Bauchi State has urged parents to enroll their adolescent girls in schools to enable them benefit from the series of interventions under the project.
The Project Coordinator Malam Ali Gar made the call while addressing the students of Government Day Secondary School Mararraban Liman Katagum in Bauchi local government on an advocacy.
Malam Ali Gar said the school which has been captured as one of the beneficiaries of the project’s intervention, would be renovated with befitting facilities to include furniture, teaching and learning materials as well as computers and other skills empowerment tools.
He listed some of the benefits the beneficiaries would drive to include a cumulative stipend of sixty thousand naira each session for those with an attendance rate of seventy five percent and above, skills training for girls from SS1 and above, Second Chance Education for adolescent girls who dropped out of school among others.
The AGILE Project Coordinator called on the students to sensitise their parents and friends who are not attending school to return to benefit from the intervention and make their lives productive by becoming self reliant after graduation.
Part of the activities conducted during the advocacy visit were playing of enlightenment and sensitisation songs about the importance of girl child education among others.
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