From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Kogi State Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Project (AGILE), is partnering Media Houses, Nongovernmental and Civil Society Organisations on Implementation Sensitization and Awareness.
Dr. Abdulhakeem Bello, Coordinator of Kogi AGILE, during an interactive session with participants on Sensitization strategies, held in Lokoja on Monday, said that the collaboration will go a long way in making citizens have first hand information on what AGILE is all about and as its activities would benefit all communities across the state.
He told the participants that AGILE Project is a World Bank assistant project of the Federal Ministry of Education geared towards improving secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls aged between 10 and 20.
He noted that Adolescent girls in Nigeria are generally faced with challenges that prevent them from accessing and completing secondary education due to sociocultural, financial constraints, and infrastructural deficits
“The AGILE Project is meant to improve secondary education opportunities in implementing states by tackling these challenges, thus making education more appealing to adolescent girls, parents, communities, and institutions
“The Project Development Objective is to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in the participating states by addressing the specific sociocultural/religious norms and other constraints that hinder parents/guardians from allowing their female children/wards from accessing and completing secondary education
“We are determined to foster an enabling environment for girls, promoting their social and behaviour change through communications campaigns, engagement with traditional rulers and advocacy, empowering girls with critical life skills knowledge for navigating adulthood and digital literacy skills as well as providing financial incentives and scholarship to the poorest households”
Part of the implementation intervention, for AGILE Project in Kogi state, according Dr. Abdulhakeem Bello, includes; construction of classroom, laboratory and toiletries blocks in all existing government schools, renovation of government colleges, equipment of computer laboratories in selected government schools, training of teachers and girls on life expectancy, provision of second chance education out of school girls and scholarship for poor households among others.
