Adamawa State is to have 32 new secondary schools under a fresh education opportunities expansion program.

The new schools will comprise 16 junior secondary schools and 16 senior secondary schools spread across the 21 local government areas.

The programme, being implemented by Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Additional Financing Project (AGILE-AF), is in joint partnership with the Adamawa State Government, with funding from the World Bank and designed to reduce the number of out-of-school children with particular reference to girls.

The Monitoring and Evaluation officer of the AGILE-AF, Bathon Ati, said at a media roundtable on the program at the weekend that apart from the entirely new schools to be built, AGILE-AF would be renovating 1,055 secondary schools and 14 non-formal education centres and providing necessary facilities, both to make more schools conveniently available and to enhance quality.

He added that under a component of the program, families identified as being too poor to provide the basic needs of girls would be empowered.

?We are addressing the challenges, including poverty and cultural beliefs, that make girls drop out of school, so that they can have a second chance to return to school,? Ati said.

Adamawa Commissioner for Education, Dr Umar Garba, said the State Government had long paid the counterpart fund required by the World Bank and that it remains in active partnership with AGILE-AF to empower the girl child with the education that she needs for a meaningful life.

The commissioner said no girl should drop out of school permanently because of poverty, early marriage or unwanted pregnancy without opportunity for a return to school. (The Nation)

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