Partnership to improve school re-entry opportunities for girls who dropped out due to marriage, pregnancy and financial barriers.
By Esther Olaoluwa
The Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI) has entered into a three-year partnership with the Malala Fund to support girls’ secondary education and improve school re-entry opportunities in Kaduna State.
The partnership will support at least 500 girls who have dropped out of school, helping them return to the classroom and remain in school through targeted support, community engagement and government accountability.
BBYDI said the initiative is focused on addressing some of the financial, family and administrative barriers that prevent girls from continuing their education.
A survey of 200 adolescent girls across three local government areas in Kaduna found that 68 per cent identified family financial pressure as the biggest threat to their education.
The survey also showed that only 40 per cent of girls who were already out of school knew of any pathway through which they could return.
500 Girls to Receive Individual Support
Under the partnership, BBYDI said each beneficiary will receive support tailored to the challenges preventing her return to school.
The support will include recovering missing documents, facilitating re-enrolment, mediation with families through community leaders and tracking the girls for 12 months after they return to class.
The programme will also follow beneficiaries as they move from junior to senior secondary school, a transition BBYDI identified as a point where many girls in northern Nigeria leave school.
The organisation said the initiative will also focus on helping girls who leave school because of marriage or pregnancy to understand and exercise their right to return to education.
Kaduna State adopted the Child Rights Act in 2007, giving girls who leave school after marriage or pregnancy a legal right to return.
Nurah Jimoh-Sanni, Executive Director of BBYDI, said the challenge was now ensuring that the right translates into a practical pathway back to school.
“A married girl in Kaduna already has the right to finish her education. Delivering it needs a protocol her head teacher has read and money budgeted for her return, and we will work with the Kaduna State Government to produce both,” she said.
Jimoh-Sanni said BBYDI would publish its findings from the programme, including the government’s response to the issues identified.
Traditional Leaders to Support Girls’ Education
BBYDI will also establish the Kaduna Faith and Traditional Leaders Coalition for Girls’ Education as part of the partnership.
The coalition will bring together emirs, district and ward heads, Islamic scholars and Christian clergy from Kaduna North, Central and South.
The leaders will use an advocacy toolkit produced in Hausa and English and based on Islamic and Christian scholarship as well as education data from Kaduna.
BBYDI said the approach is intended to enable community and religious leaders to make the case for girls’ education in ways that are relevant to their communities.
Taibat Hussain, who leads BBYDI’s work on girl-child education, said administrative challenges can also prevent girls from returning to school.
“A girl who wants to return often cannot prove she was ever enrolled. Her birth certificate has gone, or her examination number, and nobody at the school has been given the job of helping her recover either one,” Hussain said.
Partnership to Track Government Commitments
The organisation said it will bring coalition leaders together with officials from the State Universal Basic Education Board, the Ministry of Education and the State House of Assembly Education Committee every six months.
BBYDI said government responses to evidence presented by communities will be documented and published within two weeks.
Each session will also begin with a review of commitments made at the previous meeting.
An annual Girls’ Education Budget Accountability Scorecard will be used to track government commitments, while BBYDI will advocate for a joint government and community committee to publicly report on enrolment, dropout and school re-entry.
According to the organisation, Kaduna State currently has no dedicated budget allocation for girls’ re-entry support.
The partnership will push for a dedicated allocation to support girls returning to school and strengthen systems for tracking enrolment, dropout and re-entry.
The three-year initiative is expected to combine direct support for girls with community advocacy and government accountability to improve access to secondary education and make it easier for girls who leave school to return.
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