Stakeholders Validate Framework, Push for Equitable Education Budget to Close Gender Gap in Kano
Education sector stakeholders in Kano State have expressed concern over the glaring gender disparity in the state’s educational system. Of the 34 technical colleges in the state, only one is designated for female students, a situation mirrored in the Kano State Quranic and Islamiyya Management Board, where just one out of 13 Tsangaya schools is allocated for girls.
Amina Alqassim, the Coordinator of Girls’ Education at the Ministry of Education, highlighted these issues during a validation session for the Gender Responsive Education Budgeting (GREB) framework, organized by the Bridge Connect Africa Initiative. The session was part of a three-year project titled “Bridging Access to Girl Child Education,” funded by the Malala Foundation.
Alqassim pointed to several factors driving the gender gap in education, including socio-cultural norms, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient budget allocation. She emphasized that the adoption of the GREB framework would help address these issues and ensure more equitable resource distribution in education.
“With the GREB framework, we’ve identified the gaps in budgeting that hinder gender equity in education,” she said. “For instance, only one out of 34 technical colleges is for girls, and just one out of 13 Tsangaya schools accommodates female students. These are the kinds of disparities that GREB will address.”
Alqassim, who chairs the GREB committee, assured that once the framework is finalized, it will be presented to the state commissioner for education and then to the governor for adoption. She expressed confidence in the government’s commitment to improving girls’ education in Kano.
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In his remarks, Mohammed Bello, the lead consultant of the Bridging Access to Girl Child Education Project, said if adopted, the framework would translate to more money for girl child education in the state.
Bello added that the document would also address the challenge of out-of-school children by encouraging more girls to transition from primary to junior secondary schools and from senior secondary school to tertiary institutions.
“This is the third session of the exercise, which aims at drafting GREB for the ministry of education and sub-sectors to be institutionalized into the system to enhance gender responsiveness so as to close those gender disparity gaps.
“This is to achieve a situation where we begin to see more budget allocation for girl child education in addressing the issue of completion and transition rate that is dropping now to see improvement in that number for girls in order to maximize their opportunities as their fundamental human rights.
“We are looking at an increase in budget size of about nine to ten percent of the education budget being allocated for the girl child education initiative in the state.” He said.
On her part, Fatima Musa Aliyu, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Bridge Connect Africa Initiative, said the validation meeting was part of the unrelenting efforts of the stakeholders to ensure girls have access to quality education in the state.
“From our findings, more than one million children are out of school in Kano, and most of them are girls, hence the need to work on this framework to enable the girls to reach their full potentials.
“The stakeholders want the girls’ access to quality education to go beyond girls’ enrollment in primary schools to transitioning to secondary and higher institutions.” Aliyu said.
