The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) is set to renovate and construct junior and senior secondary schools across Sokoto State.
Mansur Isa Buhari, PhD, the State Project Coordinator, announced this during a media interaction with journalists and social media practitioners.
Buhari, when delivering an overview of the AGILE project, stated that 260 junior secondary schools will be renovated, with twenty-eight new ones to be built.
He also stated that 107 senior secondary schools will be renovated, with the construction of twenty-eight new ones.
Speaking on the project’s performance since it was implemented in Nigeria, Buhari stated that the initiative has created safe and accessible learning spaces across the implementing states.
He also stated that the project has provided females with vital life skills and knowledge to properly navigate adulthood.
Buhari, on the other hand, addressed concerns and misconceptions regarding the program’s objectives, stating that the state’s AGILE project is not intended to westernise the girl child, as some have claimed.
He emphasised that AGILE operates independently of the school curriculum and seeks to improve the lives of girls in the Northern part of the country.
“AGILE programme is designed to provide targeted infrastructure development, support to schools attended by adolescent girls and enhancing their learning environments without influencing or altering the school’s curriculum in any way,” he said.
On the project’s prospects in the state, the Coordinator stated that AGILE plans to give financial incentives and digital skills training to around 52,400 adolescent girls in the state.
He did, however, applaud the State Government for participating in the World Bank-supported project, saying it will go a long way towards revolutionising girl-child education in Sokoto State.
Earlier, Hajiya Rabi Gwadabawa, the programme Communication Officer, stated that the meeting was held to collaborate with media practitioners in promoting the project’s vision and objectives.
Gwadabawa noted that the AGILE programme was created to close this gap by boosting overall well-being and empowerment for young girls in the community.
The Sokoto State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Muhammad Tukur Alkali, stated that the State Government earmarked N150 million as a counterpart fund and N50 million for the takeoff of the programme.
The Commissioner, who was represented by Director, Education Resource Center, Malam Bashir Ibrahim, pointed to the importance of media in shaping activities, especially those that have relevance to the socio-economic styles of the vast population.