By Adesina Wahab

WHEN experts and stakeholders in public and private sectors gathered in Lagos for the 2022 NEDIS Education Innovation Summit, their focus was to look at the innovations that would help in solving challenges facing the delivery of accessible and high quality education to Nigerian children. The girl child being the main target. This is due to the fact that of the estimated 18 million out-of-school children in the country, over 10 million are girls, and there is no doubt that urgent steps need to be taken to ensure the girl child stays in school and get quality education. 

According to the Programme Officer, development Research and Project Centre, dRPC, Zubaida Abdulsalami, some of the factors responsible for girls not staying in school include fear for their safety, early child marriage, poverty, lack of mentorship among others. 

“It is in recognition of those factors that dRPC and The Education Partnership, TEP, came up with the West African Teachers Innovation Prize, WATIP. it is meant to reward teachers who are using innovative methods to ensure that the girl child stays in school and gets quality education that would shape her life in a positive manner. 

“Apart from the innovative method used, we also consider the impact of the method and the resultant effects on the female students and the community at large,” she said.

Butressing that position, the Programme Officer, TEP,   Utibe Henshaw, said educating a girl chiod is like educating a whole community when one looks at the multiple roles a girl who later grows to be a woman plays in the society.

‘TEP serves a broad range of education sector stakeholders including policymakers, corporate organisations and foundations, development agencies among others. Our aim is to ensure access to education for our children and we also encourage and boost the morale of people using innovative methods to get all these done, “ she stated..

The Federal Ministry of Education, in a speech by the Director of Basic Education, Hajiya Binta Abdulkadir, said the government was taking steps to ensure reduction in the number of OSC and also get more female children educated. 

Abdulkadir, represented by a Deputy Director,   Adekola Benjamin, noted that technical and vocational education has become a plank through which the government hopes to also drastically reduce unemployment among school leavers, so that they would not see going to school as a waste of time and resources. 

“The government is also appreciative of the efforts by organisations like dRPC, TEP and others encouraging our teachers as they perform their duties. The government is also not taking the issue of teachers welfare for granted and that is why the government has come up with policies to boost their morale and even encourage the young ones to go into teaching.

These are parts of what the new policies regarding salary, allowances and retirement age for teachers are all about,” she said.

A panel session by students from schools in the Makoko area of Lagos, emphasised the need for the teaching of life and survival skills to the young ones as part of preparing them for future challenges. They noted that skills such as swimming and even proficiency in combat sports like karate could be life saving at times.

The highpoint of the event was the announcement and presentation of prizes to WATIP winners. The Director General of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State, Dr Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, joined by others called out the winners. Umar Samaila was the fourth place winner and was rewarded with the sum of N360,000. Ibrahim Olawale came third and was given N648,000, while Alebiosu Oluwakayode came second and got N1,296,000.

The first prize went to Aisahatu Jafaar Suleiman who got N1, 944,000. Suleiman, a catering instructor at Girls Day Secondary School, Karu, said when she lost her husband in 2018, she would not have been able to cope if she was not empowered by being educated and having some skills to navigate life.

“We need to encourage the girl child. We have to support her. When my husband died in 2018, I would not have been able to cope if I am not empowered aa a female. When I saw the situation around me, I took it upon myself to encourage girls to stay after school and learn some skills. My school is a day school and sometime I do stay till 6pm occasionally. 

“I previously worked in a private school before securing this government job in 2016. I am happy that the girls I mentor are doing well. I teach them sewing, cooking and other skills. I know that hard work pays. The principal of my school and my colleagues encourage me.

“It was the chairman of the Parent Teacher Association that even told me about this competition and said I should drop my entry,” she stated.

On how she wants to spend the prize money, Suleiman said she would give one-third to the PTA to execute some projects in the school, reserve one-third for herself and family and share the remaining one-third into two. One part to buy things for her students and the other to give her teacher colleagues.

Abdulsalami and Henshaw expressed optimism that more people would put in for next year’s competition, as their organisations are ready to continue with rewarding innovations that would encourage the girl child to stay in school.