By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
A renewed drive to reduce the number of out-of-school girls in Bauchi State has gathered momentum as the Women, Child, Youth Health and Education (WCY) Initiative, under its Malala-funded Adolescent Mothers' Education Access (AMEA) Project, secured the commitment of the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Bauchi State Chapter, to champion the implementation of the School Re-entry Policy for married and pregnant adolescent girls.
The commitment emerged at a one-day town hall meeting in Bauchi, where the organisation also unveiled the Bauchi State Gender in Education Policy and the School Re-entry Guidelines to secondary school principals.
Addressing participants, WCY Executive Director and AMEA Project Manager, Rashida Mukaddas, said the policy seeks to end the exclusion of girls from education due to early marriage and pregnancy by ensuring they are readmitted to school in line with the Federal Ministry of Education's National Guidelines.
She described school principals as the driving force behind the successful implementation of the policy.
AMEA Senior Programme Officer, Kamal Ali Bello, explained that the guidelines are designed to promote the re-entry, retention and completion of education for adolescent mothers while strengthening the capacity of school administrators to manage schoolgirl pregnancy cases and provide referral pathways and accountability measures for gender-based violence.
In separate remarks, ANCOPSS Bauchi State President, Saleh Usman, and the association's National Vice President, Rabiu Shehu Lawal, welcomed the initiative and pledged the support of school principals toward effective implementation of the policy across the state.
They called for sustained collaboration with WCY to ensure the guidelines translate into increased access to education for married and pregnant adolescent girls, while participants at the meeting also contributed recommendations aimed at strengthening the policy's implementation.
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