UNICEF mulls bringing 1m out of school girls back

The Kano State Project Coordinator of UNICEF, Richard Seyin Akannet, has stated that the organisation through its GEP3 initiative plans to bring out a million girls back to school.
Akannet stated this on Tuesday in Kano at a media dialogue organised by UNICEF in partnership with DFID on School Based Management.
He said the organization intends to reduce out of school children, especially girls, through following some sets of guidelines or outputs.
He elaborated that despite that, the plan of more girls going to school does not mean that the boys will be neglected.
He stated that the main reasons for girls dropping out of school in the North, according to the Nigerian Education data, were personal cost and opportunity cost.
He said 44 per cent of girls drop out of school because of distance, 36 per cent because of opportunity costs and 26 per cent due to direct cost.
Akannet also listed the northern states to benefit from the project to include Bauchi, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kano and the girls apart from education will also have life skills help them in the future.
He also revealed that under this initiative, there will be increase in enrolment and cash transfer schemes, which is only operational in Niger and Sokoto States for now.
Akannet further disclosed that teachers’ capacity will also be improved and female teachers will be given preference in training.
He said female graduates will be given scholarships and retained in the system, while women who have attained enviable heights in their fields will be used as model.
He also said that UNICEF will partner with the states to strengthen state mechanism for collecting education data, especially the annual school census.
He enumerated that by the end of 2020, the initiative could have improved girls survival rate to grade five to 80 per cent, 1.6 million girls will be reached, 42,000 primary school teachers will be reached and 15,300 head teachers trained and 1.9 million boys will also benefit from the initiative despite it been a girl’s scheme.