Chairmen of Maiha and Numan Local Government area of Adamawa have praised the Malala Foundation for carrying out projects to encourage the girl Child education in the state.
The Maiha Council Chairman, Dr Idi Aminu and his fellow counterpart of Numan, Hon Innocent Koto in a separate interview with our correspondent during an annual Inter school debate competition on the Community led collective action for Girl Education (C-CAGE) project at the Nyako centre in Yola thanked the foundation for encouraging the enrollment of girl child in school.
The event which was organized by the
African Center for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Center LSD) with support from Malala Foundation brought together selected secondary school girls.
The senior programs officer centre LSD, Lawal Amodu in a statement said the inter school debate It is an event that have three focal LGAs of Adamawa state comprise Maiha, Numan and Song in line with its mandate of envisioning an African society with strategic leadership and sustainable, and with the mission to work with forces of positive change to empower citizens to transform society.
According to him the work of Centre-LSD stands on a tripod of Leadership, Strategy and Development.
“The C-CAGE project focuses on girl child education – figures on this varies across the country but the northeast has a high rate of out of school children majority of whom are girl (because of norms and preference for the boy child education.
“C-CAGE project targets to encourage girls to continue their education to at least SSCE level. Hence the need to encourage out-of-school girls to return and complete the secondary school education.
“With funding from MALALA Foundation Centre LSD has engaged the 3 focal LGAs and the education stakeholder in the state in the past 2years plus – in trainings and capacity building, town hall meetings, established safe space for in and out of schoolgirls and carried out advocacies on the challenges with education in the focal areas.
Successes.” Lawal said
He continued to say that the foundation have a succeeded on Knowledge transfer to other community members by beneficiaries of their training,Deepening of awareness on the need for girl-child education in the areas,increased enrolment of 960 girls to school, Establishment of 16 safe spaces with 606 in-school and out of schoolgirls peer learning and sharing experiences and skills with one another (twice in a month). And more.
“Today, we are here with our amazing students from the different school across the 3 LGAs to debate on whether investing in girlchild education is a worthy endeavour or not. The student will provide their respective arguments for and against.
“The essence of this debate is not to demean the object of the C-CAGE project objective but one that targets at providing an opportunity for the girl child to express themselves and their ideas around girlchild education. And by extension deepen the push for the girlchild education in the state. So essentially this event is for learning for both the girls who are competing in this debate, other students here present and very importantly the education stakeholders in Adamawa State.
“We all will have take homes from this event.While the focus of this event is on the debate competition, there are other side attractions that will be seen in the little time we have. There will be a display of vocational skills learnt by some of the girls at the safe spaces outside the auditorium as well as a spelling bee competition for the students invited from Yola metropolis.
“Before taking my seat, I would like to thank all the stakeholders on education for being receptive to our advocacies and engagement and for the listening ears you gave to us. The media has been wonderful during our engagements. This is how we can partner with one another to change and transform our society. For our students, we implore you to continue to do your best to achieve your academic heights and work to encourage other girls to enrol and at least complete their secondary school education.
The event which rounded up with exhibition of soup, detergent making, cake backing by female students of various school.
In the debate competition, Government Girls secondary school Numan became the overall winner, followed by Maiha local government as the second runner.
