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Katsina State, UNICEF Increase Girl Child’s Access To Education

Katsina State and the UNICEF are increasing the girl child access to education through the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme. Over 10,000 girls under the ages … Continue reading Katsina State, UNICEF Increase Girl Child’s Access To Education


girl-child-educationKatsina State and the UNICEF are increasing the girl child access to education through the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme.

Over 10,000 girls under the ages of 7 to 15 years in Katsina State, in northwest Nigeria, have no access to formal education.

The State government has spent over 900 million Naira since 2009 to encourage girl child education, increasing the number of enrolment to about 80% in 20014.

At the state’s Conditional Cash Transfer Programme report on Wednesday, 5,427 families were selected for the pilot programme made up of 9,059 beneficiaries drown from 160 rural primary schools.

In September 2009, the UNICEF introduced the program in some states across northern Nigeria.

The aim is to encourage the girl child in the north to get educated, with UNICEF providing technical assistance, while the Millennium Development Goals in collaboration with the participating state provide 100% funding.

Although the programme has not recorded much success in Kano and Bauchi States, Katsina State has continued to invest more in the lives of the girl child.

Conditional Cash 

However, Being the leading state in northern Nigeria when it comes to formal education, Katsina State suffers set back on the development of the girl child education, as authorities are having a hard time to convince most parents to prioritise.

In order to encourage the girl child education, the government is targeting girls from poor homes within the age bracket of 7 to 15 who are currently attending grades 1, 4, 5 and 6 and those who have dropped out or had never attended school.

A conditional cash of 5,000 Naira is given to mothers on quarterly basis depending on the number of their children attending the said grades.

The Special Assistant to the State governor on the Girl Child Education, Bilkisu Kaikai, said that the programme was designed to increase the level of enrolment of the girl child in schools and their retention until graduation.

“Each participant is expected to have at least 80% attendant before collecting the cash,” she said.

For three years now, the authorities say the number of girls enrolment into primary schools in Katsina State has increase to about 80% as mothers say the program has changed their perception from early marriage to a better education for the girl child.

Although the State government says there is an effort to scale up the program, some challenges the program is likely to face are the issue of continuity and active monitoring mechanism that will ensure proper utilisation of the resources by the mothers.