United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has said it is mobilising journalists to drive discussions and increase awareness against barriers to girl-child education in Kaduna State.
The state partnership facilitator, FCDO’s governance programme, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), Istifanus Akau, made this known at a two-day Media Strategic Session in Zaria, yesterday.
Akau said the meeting was organised by PERL in collaboration with Kaduna State Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADSBEAM) and Jalad Media Concept.
He explained that PERL, a governance programme in Nigeria funded by FCDO was aimed at bringing government and citizens together to address governance challenges associated with service delivery.
He said the objective of the media strategic session was to push for continued engagement on identified social norms and other barriers and bottlenecks to girl-child education.
Akau said the meeting was also to develop effective media engagement plan to deepen and guide the conversation toward influencing behavioural change on girl education in Kaduna State.
He said the media engagement was in line with the UK’s resolve to contribute to global commitment to get 40 million girls into education and 20 million girls reading by age of 10.
The partnership facilitator said the commitment was in line with SDG–4 towards achieving inclusive and quality education for all as a proven vehicle for sustainable development.
“This goal is to ensure all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030.”
He pointed out that education remained a top priority of the Kaduna State government, with a commitment to improving basic education.
He added that the government equally made a commitment to ensure all children, particularly girls in difficult circumstances, ethnic minorities have access to quality basic education.
“The government also introduced a ‘Second Chance Education’ initiative to provide further studying opportunities for girls that dropped out of school due to domestic demands, especially early marriage.