By Rita Michael
Bauchi
The Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, has lamented the high rate of out-of-school girls in the North-East.
He said that out of the 110 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, the North-East Nigeria was leading with a high percent of girls who were out of school.
Abubakar stated this when members of High Level Women Advocacy group (HILWA), drawn from 14 northern states, paid him an advocacy visit at the government house in Bauchi.
He said that education was key to the programmes of the state government and vowed to give priority to girl-child-education in the state.
He said, “I inherited a project of Conditional Cash Transfer fund from the World Bank which was channeled into the promotion of girl-child education. The federal government has taken over the funding of the scheme.”
Acording to him, school feeding programme in the state has given impetus to the problem of the out-of-school children, pointing out that a large percentage of the children has returned to school.
In her address, the UNICEF Specialist on Education, Miriam Dikwa, decried the low enrollment of children in schools and transition of girls from primary to secondary level of education, saying that 44% of girls in the state were still out of school with 41% at the junior secondary school and 38% at Senior secondary school.
She advocated for the increase of budgetary allocation to the education sector in the state from 16 to 26% as stipulated by UNESCO and requested the government to release the sum of N223,833,235 as counterpart funding for the Girl Child Project, phase 3.
Also, the wife of the state governor and Chairperson of Northern Governors Wife Forum, Hajiya Hadiza Abubakar, commended the members of HILWA for championing the rights of women and children in thier respective states, saying that no meaningful development can occur without women and children as they are the backbone of the society.