Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF) has trained 20 secondary school girls as Ambassadors for its Girls Education Project titled, ‘’Advocating for policy formulation and adoption of free and compulsory education for girls in public secondary schools in Kaduna state.’’

The AMDF project is funded by Rise Up project of the Public Health Institute of John Hopkins University, with support from Cummins INC.

The Girls Education Project followed declaration by Kaduna state government, in northwest Nigeria, in September 2018, on provision of free education for girls in public secondary schools in the state.

According to Kaduna state government, the free education programme will increase enrolment, retention and completion rate of girls in schools across the state. Based on government’s projection, over 200,000 girls will enrol in schools in 2019 alone.

Though in operation, the free education programme has no supporting policy document, hence, AMDF’s intervention.

The AMDF’s Project Manager, Mr Benjamin Maigari, told the Girls Ambassadors that the essence of the training was for the girls to be part of the advocacy team.

He added that, when the story of the policy is written, they will be part of the success story.

Speaking on behalf of the Girls Ambassadors, Miss Mary Bawa Emmanuel of Government Girls Secondary School Barnawa, Kaduna, appreciated the opportunity to participate in the policy formulation process, and promised to work with the project team to actualize the expected advocacy result.

 

She also expressed optimism that the programme will improve the rate of girls’ retention in public schools.

 

The Girls Ambassadors were drawn from 5 different public schools in Kaduna state, namely Government Girls Secondary School Barnawa, Government Girls Secondary School Soba

Government Secondary School Rido, Government Secondary School Rimau, Government Secondary School Farakwai.