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Obasanjo launches N6.7bn girls’ education project
PRESIDENT
Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday in Minna launched the N6.7billion Girls Education
Project (GEP), stating that it will help provide unhindered access to quality
basic education to all Nigerians irrespective of their gender, origin, culture
or socio-economic background.
The President, who spoke at the 51st
National Council on Education (NCE) summit in Niger State, congratulated the
Federal Ministry of Education for securing the United Kingdom’s Department For
International Development (DFID) grant of N6.7billion and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF’s) technical assistance for the GEP project in the
country.
According to the Minister of Science and
Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, who represented the President at the event, the
present administration is determined to reform the nation through the National
Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) which is the reform agenda
that will reduce poverty, create wealth, generate employment and re-orientate
the national values for accelerated development.
He stated that the government recognized
education as key transformational tool and instrument for positive change which
must be used to turn out products who would be job and wealth creators and not
employment and wage seekers, adding that "more than any other sector the
challenge of NEEDS is the challenge of the education sector".
Speaking further, he said the nation has
no option but to vigorously pursue the attainment of Education For All (EFA) and
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), pointing out that the Federal Government is
already setting the pace by providing an enabling policy environment through the
Universal Basic Education Act, which is aimed at widening access to and
delivering basic education of the highest quality to all Nigerians.
Out of the 11 states from the Northern
part of the country said to be the worst hit by the girls education problem, six
of them namely, Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Niger, Bauchi and Borno states will be
the first to benefit from the project while the others, Zamfara, Kebbi, Kano,
Yobe, Gombe and Adamawa states will be covered as the implementation of the
project progresses.
In her remarks on behalf of the Federal
Ministry of Education and the Project Steering Committee, the Minister of State
for Education, Hajja Bintu Ibrahim Musa, while pointing out that education
remains the veritable means of human and national development, stated that
"ensuring and sustaining access to quality education for all is the ultimate
weapon against; and the remedy for the menace of ignorance, poverty, disease,
chronic dependency, stagnation and instability of any form"
Hajja Ibrahim Musa stated that this
recognition informs and continues to drive the Federal Government’s intense
efforts at effectively addressing and eliminating all impediments to the
attainment of EFA and MDGs, noting that the GEP is a bold well strategized
action plan to tackle Nigeria’s present under-achievement in the education of
the girl child.
According to her, current data indicate
that of the estimated seven million Nigerian out-of-school children, 62 per cent
are girls while the national net enrolment ratio is estimated to be 74 per cent
for boys and 56 per cent for girls, translating to a national gender gap of 18
per cent in favour of boys, adding that in some states, the gender gap is as
wide as 40 per cent!
She therefore pleaded that except
far-reaching and well-conceived interventions are made, the nation’s dream of
meeting the EFA and MDGs targets of gender parity in education will remain an
illusion and far-fetched, adding that most painfully the nation will continue to
be denied the immense benefits of the full engagement and contributions of
adequately educated and empowered girls and women in national development.
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