Legal Defence and Assistant Project (LEDAP) advocates on the need for parents and stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that girls have access to free and compulsory qualitative universal primary and junior secondary education in Bauchi State.
The Senior Programme Manager LEDAP, Mrs. Pamela Ugwueze threw the challenge in her key note address at a workshop organised for education stakeholders in Bauchi on Wednesday.
Mrs. Pamela who was represented at the workshop by Bauchi LEDAP Bauchi Coordinator, Mr. Mbami Iliya Sabka, said the workshop was designed to strengthen the capacity of education officials in the state to engage government at various levels and community members to ensure full implementation of the Universal Basic Education Act in Buachi State.
The core goal of the project, Mrs. Pamela explains, is to offer “solutions to the low education enrollment for the girl-child in the project states and ensure states Government take appropriate action to promote free and qualitative education for all, especially girls.”
Mrs. Pamela said given the number of out of school girls in Northern Nigeria “LEDAP in conjunction with Malala Fund, is undertaking similar projects in Kano, Kaduna and Adamawa to implement the provisions of Universal Basic Education Act, 2004.”
To Mrs. Pamela, the project seeks to established that, “everyone, especially the girl-child has a right to free, compulsory and universal primary education and junior secondary education in the projects states.”
The workshop was themed: Training of Key Education Officials on the Universal Basic Education Act in Bauchi State featured three paper presentations from education and legal experts.
In her presentation, Dr. Brikila Okafor Emefesi said “Bauchi State is lagging when it comes to enrollment of girls for primary and junior secondary education. All children have right to access free and compulsory education based on the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.”
Dr. Briskila opined that poverty, illiteracy, distance between homes and schools, fees attached to enrollment, uniform, canteens, transportation and preset mindset of many people in Bauchi make them abhor sending their girls-child to classrooms.
She called on teachers as pertinent education stakeholders to create awareness on the need to enroll girls-child into primary and junior secondary schools in their churches, mosques, shrines and other places where people come together in numbers.
Mr. Godwin Udoh, a legal practitioner lamented that most people in our communities are ignorant of the existence of laws enforcing free and compulsory girl-child education in Nigeria coupled with peoples’ mindset about laws, make many people think that the task of educating their female children rest on their shoulders only not the government.
Dr. Elezabeth Danladi advocated that defaulting parents should be imprisoned or fined or both as provided for in the constitution and UBE Act 2004 to help improve the rate of girl-child enrollment for basic universal education in Bauchi State.
Participant for the workshop were drawn from the Bauchi Ministry of Education and Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board.
