Pulse.ng : UNICEF, HiLWA brainstorm to bolster girl-child education

By Sani Idris

UNICEF has engaged the High Level Women Advocates (HiLWA) on ensuring sustainable ways of increasing Retention, Transition and Completion (RTC) of adolescents in secondary schools.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that HiLWA is a group of high level women with common interest identified to champion girls education.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the last day of the two-day national HiLWA meeting on Thursday in Kaduna, UNICEF’s Education Specialist, Sokoto Field Office, Mr Francis Elisha, said the participants were drawn from 12 states in the Northern part of the country.

He noted that the focus of the engagement was to brainstorm on ways and strategies to influence the policies towards addressing Out-Of-School-Children (OOSC) especially girls.

Elisha explained that the identified women have excelled in their fields of professional endeavors, where some have attained the level of Directors, Permanent Secretaries and Commissioners, among others.

He also said the women have great influence to impact on issues around improving adolescent education and OOSC.

Explaining further, the specialist said that the women were brought together to have a shared understanding on the need for collective actions to reduce the number of children and adolescents missing education.

He equally said the meeting was to identify and agree on HiLWA roles in advocating for the reduction of OOSC, increase RTC and implementation of the National Guideline for Re-entry of pregnant and married adolescent girls into schools.

This, he said, included strategies for advocating increased funding support and policy implementation for girls’ education in the various states.

The specialist equally said the women would develop a state specific action plan for increased enrollment and RTC for adolescents in secondary schools.

“The engagement is more of a reuniting meeting for HiLWA members to have shared understanding of the objectives and priorities of the HiLWA which will be aligning to UNICEF focus for 2023-2027.

“At the end, we will see their action plans on how to engage their state government and other stakeholders within their states to ensure that the necessary barriers that are hindering the reduction of OOSC are removed,”he said.

Giving a remark at the opening of the meeting, the UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Kaduna, Dr Gerida Birukila, said every child has the right to education.

This right, she said, was a principle upheld by global agreements like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention Against Discrimination in Education.

Birukila, represented by Therisa Panma, added that education isn’t just about learning, but a doorway to achieving other rights and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

She lamented that in spite of the persistent efforts of the Federal Government, various states and development

partners still faced significant challenges with OOSC in Nigeria.

To give a clearer picture, she said : “Let us imagine the classroom as a busy market. In an ideal scenario, every child is a buyer, eagerly browsing and learning.

”However, in reality, many children are missing from this market.”

Citing recent data, Birukila said Nigeria was facing a 26 per cent out-of-school for primary school-aged children and 25 per cent for junior secondary school-aged children.

“When we break this down further, we see a regional disparity. For example, in the North-east, nearly half of the primary school-aged children are out of school.

”This is being followed closely by the North-West with 40 per cent, while in the South-East, about 9 per cent are missing from classrooms.

“This uneven distribution highlights the urgent need for targeted solutions,” she said.

Speaking further, Birukila said the gap between

urban and rural areas was very wide, up to 25 percentage points more, with the rural children facing much higher out-of-school rates compared to their urban peers.

She said data shows that among the poorest families, 57 per cent of primary school-aged children and 58 per cent of junior secondary school-aged children are out of school.

Birukila equally said that safety concerns, exacerbated by recent incidents of abductions and attacks, have made schools less inviting.

She lamented that many schools were not properly equipped or staffed and cannot handle emergencies when the occur.

Birukila, therefore, said HiLWA members represented a beacon of hope, having excelled in their various endeavors, hence can drive the change needed.

She stated that the engagement would offer them the opportunity to align with the national and UNICEF’s education 2023-2027 priorities, where addressing OOSC was pivotal.

The UNICEF Chief therefore noted that the focus of the meeting was to brainstorm and come up with strategies for addressing OOSC and increasing retention transition and completion, especially girl affecting girl child education.

Birukila urged them to reflect deeply on the challenges and the progress made, and redefine their strategies, focusing on enhancing girls’ access to education and increasing women’s participation in education decision-making at all levels.

One of the participants, the Chairperson of HiLWA in Katsina State, Mariya Abdullahi, said she plans to leverage the members’ influence to drive policy changes and increase funding support for girls’ education and address barriers hindering access.

She also said HiLWA in the state would develop state-specific action plans, focusing on re-entry programmes and safe learning environments, to increase enrollment, retention, and completion rates of adolescent girls in secondary schools in the state.

As a pioneer founder of HiLWA, she restated her commitment to the overall objectives which the meeting stand to achieve.

NAN reports that HiLWA member states at the meeting included: Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Niger, Bauchi, Kebbi and Sokoto, among others.

NAN also reports that among factors surrounding OOSC included banditry, child labor, and early marriages which exacerbate the problem and trapping communities in cycles of illiteracy and poverty.

The impact extends beyond the current generation, posing a threat to Nigeria's future prosperity and socio-economic development.

This, UNICEF and HiLWA seeks to address through the engagement, for a better and more productive future for children especially the girls child.(NAN)