by Olawale Lamina
As a way of addressing infrastructural decay and improved enrollment of students in Niger State, the World Bank, under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment,AGILE, project has stated that it would embark on renovation of 534 schools and construct 54 secondary schools in the state.
Making the announcement at a one-day sensitization workshop for Zonal Quality Assistance Officers in Minna, AGILE Deputy Project Coordinator, Salisu Danjuma, informed that plans are equally on to give monetary incentives of N5,000 and N10,000 to vulnerable girls in seven local government areas of the state to encourage them to stay in school.
Danjuma stressed that the initiative is intended to encourage girls who would not have been interested in making it to secondary school as a result of financial constraints in their family.
“We have been told that the seven most vulnerable local government areas in Niger state include Mokwa, Mariga, Rafi, Shiroro, Lavun, Lapai, and Gbako. We will start with these local government areas.
“The girls would be selected based on the background of their families. The most poorest will be the ones supported. We have started accessing the girls. They will be in cohorts.
“The girls in Junior secondary will be assisted with N5,000 every term and the girls in the senior secondary will be assisted with N10,000 every term.
Salisu explained that,“This would reduce the poverty level of the family that is preventing the girl from going to school.
“The incentive would allow the families to allow these girls to go to school as the money would be used to help the family. “
He noted that, such incentives would help improve the enrollment and completion of the girls secondary Education.”
He added the schools renovation and construction is also being prioritized to improve the infrastructure in schools and ienhance the learning conditions of the schools.
He noted that, “One of the component of the AGILE project would be the renovation of 534 schools and construction of 54 schools which would include 27 junior secondary schools and 27 senior secondary schools.
“The entire work would be handled by community people, the school based management committee of the school.”
According to him, the schools would be entitled to grants between $30,000 to $90,000 based on the population, stating the funds would be disbursed in phases to the schools set aside for the project.
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