By Suzan Edeh

Bauchi—The Bauchi State government in collaboration with UNICEF is training 1,847 female teachers under a project known as Female Teachers Trainee Scholarship Scheme (FTTSS) as part of efforts at boosting girl child education.

The UNICEF D Field Office Education Specialist, Mariam Dikwa, disclosed this yesterday during a one day meeting on the dissemination of FTTSS guidelines for improving value for money organized by the College of Education Azare in collaboration with UNICEF in Bauchi.

The aim of the meeting was to educate stakeholders to understand their roles in the activities of FTTSS in order to ensure effectiveness of the programme.

Mariam noted that the project was necessary because of dearth of qualified teachers in rural schools which contributed to low enrolment of girls in schools and gender imbalance in the current teacher work force.

She said that in 2008, UNICEF and DFID partnered with the federal ministry of education to support increasing the number of female teachers to improve learning through financial support to Female Teachers Trainee Scholarship Scheme under the girl child education.

“In Bauchi state, the scheme was introduced in 2008/2009 academic session following the endorsement of the memorandum of understanding on Girl child Project phase 2 by the state”