Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP has called on Bauchi Education authorities to do the needful to ensure girl-child in the state have access to qualitative primary and junior secondary education.
Senior Programme Manager LEDAP, Mrs. Pamela Okoroigwe stated this in her keynote address at its Annual Consultative Forum on Implementation of the Right to Basic Education in Bauchi on Tuesday.
Mrs. Pamela who was represented by Bauchi LEDAP Coordinator, Mr. Mbami Iliya Sabka, said giving the number of girl-child enrolment into primary and junior secondary school in the Bauchi State, Government must take appropriate actions to give “qualitative education to girls in Bauchi State.”
“It is a known fact that schools have remained closed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and there is a high probability that less percentage of school children will return to their classes now that the government decides to reopen schools.
“Research shows that 50.8% of girls in Northern Nigeria are out of primary school because of poverty, sexual violence and early marriage,” she said.
The Senior Programme Manager said given the number of out of school girls in Northern Nigeria “LEDAP in partnership with Malala Fund, is undertaking similar projects in Kano, Kaduna and Adamawa to implement the provisions of Universal Basic Education Act, 2004.”
The Forum featured paper presentations on Baseline Assessment on the Barriers to the Right to Basic Education in the State, Especially for the Girl-Child by Mohammed Bello; Right to Basic Education in Bauchi State in the Light of COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Solutions by Dr. Idris Isyaku Abdullahi
The forum drew participants from the Bauchi Ministry of Education, Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, UNICEF and CSOs.
