Bauchi to boost school attendance by paying 16,260 female pupils
The Bauchi state government has initiated a programme called the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), offering financial incentives to encourage the enrolment of girls in schools.
Under this program, junior secondary school girls will receive a payment of N5,000 per term, while senior secondary school girls will be paid N10,000 per term.
AGILE, a World Bank-assisted project of the Federal Ministry of Education, is geared at improving secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls aged between 10 and 20.
The commissioner of education, who also doubles as the coordinator of the AGILE programme, Jamila Dahiru, told journalists that the programme is aimed at doing things differently to improve education in the state.
She added: “The project aimed at assisting the students who dropped out of school due to economic problems. The target is the poorest of the poor who do not have any means of payment of school fees and other requirements, the mechanism has been put in place to determine those that will qualify.
“Apart from boosting enrollment of the girl child in school, the AGILE project will ensure that the standard and quality of education did not decline but rather improved upon greatly as Teachers will be motivated and well equipped to impart knowledge on the students.”
Apart from paying pupils to attend schools, the AGILE programme will also build new spaces for learning in secondary schools, improve existing infrastructure and recruit more teachers.
