A non-governmental organization, Connected Development, has trained 30 Adamawa state workers on gender-responsive budgeting, community mobilization and monitoring and evaluation in order to ensure the enrolment and retention of the Girl-child in school.
The workers are drawn from Adamawa Ministry of Education and State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB)
Project Manager, Zaliha Lawal, on Sunday explained that the objective of the event was to enhance citizen’s participation and strengthen engagement with the government for a 12-year education through policies that encourage Girl-child education, enrolment and retention.
She reiterated that the project is funded by Malala Fund and would be focusing on gender-responsive project management whereby project budgets fit into the one aspiration of the girl child in Adamawa.
“It is very important we train these set of people that we are going to be working with over the years on project management and on how we can have a gender responsive budget and also how community people can fit into the annual budget of Adamawa state ministry of education,” she stated.
Project Lead CODE Adamawa chapter, Charity Alaja, said they looked at the wash facility, security of the structure of schools, curriculums that address girl-child education whether they are gender friendly and how girls can be enrolled in school and be retained in school till they get valuable education.
“For five days of the month a girl goes to her menstrual cycle. If the facilities are not good enough, for those five days of the school calendar a girl does not come to school. because of the bad structures she would prefer to stay at home.
“If she would have to share the toilet with the boys, she would have to stay at home. if there is no adequate water supply, she would have to stay at home.”
A stakeholder, Aishatu Rilwanu, Principal of Old GRA Secondary School, former principal of GSS Wuro–Hausa, said during her service for the past three years, the structure was dilapidated and some thugs used to move around freely.
She urged the government to do more on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), which has been a major challenge affecting the girl-child in enrolment and retention.
An official of the Post Primary School Management Board, Rev. Papa Jalo, said they would assist in monitoring and supervising each school so as to make the education of the Girl-Child more convenient and to encourage retention.
