Girls education has improved in six northern Nigerian states, including Sokoto and Zamfara, where girls enrolment in the Girls Education Programme 3, GEP3, has increased by 44 percent and 62 percent, respectively, since 2012.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Chief of Field Office, Dr. Maryam Darwesh Said, who made this disclosure at the Sokoto and Zamfara States 3 days Media Dialogue on Girls’ Education Programme, since 2012, a total of 418,614 girls (44 percent) have been enrolled in GEP3 supported schools in Sokoto, while 545,711 girls have been enrolled in Zamfara (62 percent ).
GEP3, which is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom and supported by UNICEF, aims to improve social and economic opportunities for girls by enrolling school-age girls who are not in school.
UNICEF, which provides technical assistance, has set a goal of enrolling one million girls in school to complete their basic education and acquire skills for life and livelihoods (enrolment, completion, and learning), as well as improving teacher capacity to deliver learning to girls.
Said went on to say that, since the implementation of the GEP3 in 2012, FCDO has donated at least $109,196, 039.80 to support girls’ education in Nigeria’s six northern states.
According to Said, the six states benefiting from GEP3-supported schools are Bauchi, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kano.
The UNICEF Sokoto Chief Field Office explained further on the progress made in Sokoto and Zamfara states, saying that in Sokoto, 5,943 people had their capacity built through the project, with 486 of them being female teachers.
According to her, 5,650 teachers in Zamfara had their capacity and skills enhanced through GEP3, with 295 of them being females.
In Sokoto, 880 (53 female) Integrated Quranic Schools (IQS) facilitators were trained, while in Zamfara, 400 (39 female) were trained.
“In Sokoto and Zamfara, 13,094 management committee members (including 5,353 women) attended relevant capacity development trainings to support efficient and effective governance in Primary Schools and Integrated Qur’anic schools.”
“These are just a few examples of how GEP3 has helped young girls and boys reap the most benefit from the education system as they work toward mastering foundational literacy and numeracy skills,” she said.
While emphasizing the importance of increased educational investment in Nigeria, Said also urged states to ensure full implementation of the GEP3 sustainability plan.
“I urge you to seize the opportunity of the soon-to-be-launched 2023 budgeting process to capture the required state funding contributions for UNICEF-supported interventions and to provide strategic state resources for the long-term sustainability of all gains obtained in the education sector from GEP3 and, more broadly, from the partnership with UNICEF,” she said.
Miriam Mareso, Education Manager, UNICEF Field Office, Sokoto, said that limited educational opportunities for girls, as well as barriers to completing 1+ 12 years of education, cost countries between US$15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings, and that addressing all of these factors could help lift households, communities, and countries out of poverty.
“A poor girl born in northern Nigeria faces daunting challenges throughout her life,” she quoted the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS, 2017 and Demographic Health Survey, DHS, 2018. She has a 55% chance of being stunted in early childhood and a 10% chance of dying before the age of five, primarily from preventable disease.
If she survives to school age, she has less than a 50% chance of enrolling in primary school and less than a 30% chance of transferring to secondary school. If the girl comes from a rural community or a poor household, she is doubly disadvantaged. A girl from the poorest wealth quintile has a 24% chance of enrolling in primary school and a 9% chance of enrolling in secondary school, compared to an 87 and 79 percent chance for girls from the South-South region.”
On GEP3, Mareso expressed her delight that over 1.3 million girls have been enrolled in primary and Integrated Quranic Schools, IQS, exceeding the target of 1 million girls in the six states since 2012.
