Mr Stephen Ibrahim, District Head of Kujama, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State has decried the absence of secondary schools in 15 communities in the domain.
Ibrahim disclosed this during an interactive session with traditional and community leaders on the removal of barriers to girls’ education on Wednesday in Kaduna.
According to him, non-availability of secondary schools in the communities is responsible for the huge number of out-of-school children particularly girls in the area.
He said that some of the children walk between six and 15 kilometres to the nearest school in other communities.
He identified the communities as Danbushia, Keke A and Keke B, Doka Mai Jamal, Sabon Gero, Kakura, Dan Hono, Kaluga, Kurmin Data, Kan Rafi, and Sabon Garin Kan Rafi.
Others are Torkachi, Kafari, Ungwan Sori, Buyaya, Karatudu and Federal Housing in Gonin Gora.
“Our children in Torkachi, Kafari and Bugia had to walk for 15 kilometers to the nearest secondary school. This is very discouraging, particularly for our girls.
He appealed to the state government and other development partners to consider building more schools in the community to facilitate transition from primary to secondary schools.
The meeting was organised by Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism, with support from Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), a governance programme
The district head thanked KADBEAM and PERL for the continuous support and partnership with traditional leaders to remove barriers affecting girls’ education in the state.
Ibrahim however, pledged his council’s support in mobilizing community members to send their girls to school.
A member of KADBEM, Mr Stephen Waya commended the traditional leaders for their passion and commitment to promote girls’ education in their communities.
Waya urged the traditional rulers to adopt a community-based approach to address some challenges within their capacity.
Also Mr. Femi Johnson, from KADBEM urged the traditional leaders to take advantage of the existing government policies and programmes designed to promote girls’ education.
The State Lead Facilitator, PERL Mr Adejor Abel, hailed the traditional rulers for championing the advocacy team to ensure that girls were encouraged to go to school.
He pledged PERL’s continued support in creating an enabling environment for non-state actors to effectively engage the government to improve equitable access to education.
“PERL is particularly interested in supporting community leaders in removing all barriers to girls’ education in Kaduna state.
Similarly, the Kaduna state government with support from the World Bank-supported Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project is working to increase girls’ access to secondary education in the state.
The Project Coordinator, Mrs Maryam Dangaji, told NAN that the project was supporting renovation of 550 public secondary schools across the state.
Dangaji said that a total of 155 new schools would be constructed beginning with 62 schools in phase one, 36 junior and 26 senior secondary schools across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
She explained that only communities with only junior secondary schools will benefit from projects.
According to her, another criterion will be to communities with primary schools but no junior secondary school nearby to absorb the girls. “We have identified those schools based on distance and enrolment for new students and a school with junior will now have senior secondary so that the girls will transit to senior secondary school,” Dangaji said.
