AGILE renovates 514 classrooms, procures 24,064 furniture in Kaduna

Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), a World Bank-supported project, has renovated 514 classrooms and procured 24,064 furniture in public schools in across Kaduna State.

Kaduna State Coordinator of AGILE, Hajiya Maryam Dangaji, said this at a town hall meeting with community stakeholders on Tuesday in Kaduna.

Dangaji listed the projects completed in the affected public schools to include: renovation of 507 toilets, construction of a 1,250-metre fence and 1,555 toilets.

She added that 3 laboratories, 49 offices and two examination halls were also constructed, with 60 boreholes overhauled and 136 new ones drilled.

The coordinator further said that 8,745 school girls in transition classes had benefited from conditional cash transfer in the past four months, while 33,000 had been enrolled.

Dangaji said the main objective was to encourage and increase girls’ enrolment and transition to secondary schools, ensure safe school environment as well as enhancing accessible, inclusive and conducive to teaching and learning.

She explained that the town hall meeting was to sensitise the community stakeholders and present their scorecards on what they had done in the past nine months.

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According to her, AGILE works with families, schools and communities, adding that most of the interventions are within the communities, owing to their importance.

The coordinator stressed the need to engage the community so as to be part of the sustainability and protection of the projects after the conclusion of the interventions.

Dangaji expressed concern that parents in some communities still had negative perception about the girl-child education, adding, however, that their perception had been changing due to AGILE’s intervention.

“Those are some of the challenges; they are internal and we are able to surmount them and continue with our implementation. The projects were not only for the girl-child but also, for male.

“The percentage of the AGILE project is 70 for girls and 30 for boys, because girls are the majority and research has shown that over time, girls are more vulnerable in the society.

“It has also shown that education of the girl-child eradicates poverty within the household and the community.

“That is why more attention was on them to acquire quality education and life skills that will navigate her through adulthood for societal benefit,’’ she said.

The coordinator restated the AGILE project’s commitment to ensuring that all the schools in Kaduna were in good shape within the remaining three-year lifespan of the project in the state.

A community leader in Tudun Wada, Alhaji Muhammadu Nasiru, some School Based Management Committee (SBMC) members, Hamza Usman and Margret Musa, commended the AGILE project team for the feat they had achieved in schools across the state.

Nasiru said that the schools, which were hitherto in state of dilapidation, had now been rehabilitated and brought into good condition by AGILE project.

“AGILE has increased the number of girls in schools. The incentives have gone a long way in encouraging them to focus on their studies; their parents no longer send them to hawk now,’’ he said.