International Day of Education: Creating change one girl at a time in Nigeria

Thursday 24^th January 2019 marks the first ever International Day of Education. The United Nations resolution 73/25, which marks the day, was spearheaded by the Nigerian mission at the United Nations and confirms the global political will to meet Sustainable Development Goal 4, to ensure quality education and lifelong learning for all. The UK government is committed to this vision and is ensuring no child is left behind.

TH UK government has been supporting girls to access education through the flagship Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) programme since 2012, which currently reaches up to 1.5 million girls in 18 countries. In Nigeria, the GEC is aiming to improve learning outcomes for up to 265,000 marginalised girls. Poverty is a major barrier to education in Nigeria, and many children do not attend school because their labour is needed to help at home and/or to bring additional income into the family. In addition, early pregnancy and marriage has led to high drop-out rates for adolescent girls.

The Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE) project ran from 2013-2017, before embarking on a second phase running from 2017-2020. The project works with government schools to improve the quality of teaching, as well as providing additional literacy and numeracy support to girls. Engine also supports girls to set up their own micro-business and provides training and employment preparation for young women out of school.

During the first ENGINE project, girls were identified as ambassadors to offer peer mentorship to younger girls involved in the project. Ramatu and Hauwa (below) were two of these ambassadors. Together they learnt not only literacy and numeracy skills, but also financial education and how to produce household products for sale. According to Ramatu:

“From the classes, I learnt about profit and loss. Before, when I buy something for N50, I can sell it for the same N50 or N40 if the person begs me. But on ENGINE, I learnt that I have to make some profit”.

(Ramatu above)

Hauwa also received Coca-Cola start-up assets and was integrated into the value chain. For both girls, the education and skills they learnt resulted in them being able to support their families with an income. When the first phase of ENGINE came to an end, the girls wanted to put their knowledge and skills they had learnt to further use. Together they created a group, which they called “Rahamaniyyah” (Blessed venture Group), where they provided vocational skills training for over 500 girls, at no cost. When ENGINE II began, the girls were able to continue the Rahamaniyyah, it became so well known that the community leader now has a role in overseeing activities.

(Hauwa above)

The first International Day of Education provides an opportunity to reflect on progress made so far to support girls to access an education. Ramatu and Hauwa’s continued capacity building for other girls is the ripple effect that the ENGINE II programme works to achieve. The programme is working towards sustainability of its interventions, to ensure transformational change among marginalised girls, in families, communities and within governments structures, ensuring support for them to access education and fulfil their potentials.