From Agaju Madugba
After a 10-year intervention in aspects of girls’ education in Katsina State, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday formally terminated its Girls’ Education Project 3 in the area.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom, funded the project and implemented by the UNICEF in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education and state governments of Katsina, Kano, Bauchi, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara.
Speaking at a ceremony closing the project in Katsina, the UNICEF Chief of Field office in Kano, Rahama Mohammed Farah, said that the partnership led to an enrolment of 1.5 million girls in schools the state as well as removed barriers to learning for over 50,000 boys and girls through cash transfers, as well as, “changed perceptions of many parents on the importance of girls’ education.
According to him, “on literacy, the partnership saw an overall improvement in the six states from 22.6 to 37 per cent, with Katsina state having the highest increase from 27.1 to 42.1 per cent in literacy rate of young women aged 15-24 years.
“The rate of early marriage (under 19) in target states decreased from 49.3 to 30.1 per cent.
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“Gender parity in primary overall, improved from 0.71 to 0.87, and Katsina state again registered the greatest improvement from 0.75 to near parity at 0.99.
“This means Katsina State has now enrolled nearly an equal number of girls in primary as that of boys.
“Other achievements include, capacity development of Education Management Information System (EMIS) teams at school, local Government Areas and state levels, as well as head teacher capacity development in school records keeping and overall management.
“Despite these considerable achievements of the project, there is still a huge need to invest more in education and girls’ education in Nigeria, particularly in Katsina State and the North-West of Nigeria to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to quality education.”
Also speaking at the programme, the Commissioner for Education, Prof Lawal Charanchi, said that government had already initiated moves to ensure the continuation of the project.
He said that the “remarkable” improvement of the girls national and international examinations was an evidence that the UNICEF Girls’ Education Project was a success.
Reports indicate that the FCDO alone invested a total of $108,493,125.87 in the project for the beneficiary states in the North.