The State Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development Hon. Sa’adatu Modibbo-Kawu disclosed this in Ilorin today, at a One-Day briefing on the Constitution and Training of Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Focal Persons, in all Public Secondary Schools across the State, at Fresh Hotels, Ilorin.

The Commissioner, who is also the Chairman, State Project Steering Committee (SPSC), stated further that; “AGILE is a laudable project of the present administration, under the leadership of the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, with the support from Federal Ministry of Education and the World Bank.”

At the briefing organized by the Kwara State Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development in collaboration with the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project, Hon Modibo-Kawu informed the gathering that
“AGILE’s Project Development Objective is to improve secondary education opportunities among girls, in targeted areas. During the course of implementation, issues of grievances are anticipated. We therefore need to be proactive, in order to achieve the desired success.

“Being a gender-sensitive project, the issue of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is critical to the project. There should be an effective measure to ensure that our schools are free from Gender-Based Violence, hence the reason for this gathering.” She added.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, of the Ministry, Mrs. Rebecca Bake Olanrewaju, equally commended the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) for their dedication, appreciating stakeholders for support given the education sector, urging them to also support the SPIU to achieve success in its implementation.

In his remarks, the National Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) Officer from the National Project Coordinating Unit (NPCU), Mr. Emmanuel Erinms, commended Kwara SPIU for being the first State among the Additional Financing (AF) States of AGILE to commence the constitution and training of GBV and GRC Focal Persons in all public secondary schools, adding that, AGILE is the first project targeting adolescent girls’ education in Nigeria and described Kwara as a pace setter.

Mr Erinms thereafter congratulated Kwara, for being one of the participating States to benefit from the project.

Welcoming participants to the training, the Project Coordinator, Kwara AGILE, Mr. Adeshina Azeez Salami noted there is bound to be conflicts during project Implementation, “it is therefore necessary that grievances that arise under the project are appropriately channelled, documented and resolved on time, with fairness and empathy to complainants.

The Environmental Officer of Kwara AGILE, Mr. Ayokanmi Owolabi, gave an overview of the project. He explained the components of the project and what the project aims to achieve, which is increasing the enrolment rate, retention and completion of secondary education among girls in the State.

The briefing preceded the constitution and training of Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) members and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Focal Persons in the 898 Junior and Senior Secondary schools, belonging to Kwara State Government.

The training has been scheduled to take place for a period of two weeks, across the 16 Local Government Areas of the State, with the constitution and training divided into clusters for a maximum impact.

Those present at the meeting/training include; Chairman of School-Based Management Committee (SBMC), Alhaji Khalifa Tamim, State Coordinator of the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA) Mr. Abdurrahman Ayuba and Directors from line Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) among others.