Ahead of the presentation of the 2025 budget estimates, the Adamawa State House of Assembly Standing Committee on Education and Human Capital Development and the Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Nigeria on Friday, advocated for gender responsive budgeting.
The assembly committee and line MDAs as well as FAWE advocated this during a high level strategic meeting towards a guaranteed Gender Responsive Education 2025 budget for Adamawa state.
The interface which was convened by the Adamawa Assembly Committee on Education attracted line ministries including Ministries of Education and Human Capital Development, Women and Social Development, and that of Budget and Planning.
Other MDAs who participated in the meeting include; Adamawa State Basic Education Board, Adamawa State Mass Education Board and Civil Society Organisations.
More so, the event which was organised by the committee was supported by the project being implemented by Plan International and FAWE Nigeria titled," Strengthening Civil Society Organisations to Enhance Education for All in Northern Nigeria".
Speaking, the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Human Capital Development who is the Member representing Uba/Gaya constituency at the assembly, Hon. Adum John Alaba, said that the meeting was organised to deliberate on how to include gender based issues in 2025 budget.
Hon. Alaba, who also chaired the meeting explained that the essence of the meeting was to see how they can support gender and assured of the readiness of the assembly to lobby for the inclusion gender issues in budget and ensuring its implementation.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, Aishatu M. Umar, commended the organisers of the meeting and hammered on the importance of girl child education.
Aishatu lamented that some parents of the girls are not educated and do not know the value of the education, and that one must go extra mile to convince them on the importance of girl child education.
She said that the government is about to finish work on the policy on education which according to her will help the sector, and hinted that government is going to give stipends to parents who allow their daughters to be enrolled in schools.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary Budget, Makalan Akila, advised the NGOs to have a high powered advocacy delegation to meet with the Commissioner Ministry of Education and commended the conveners of the interface.
In her opening remarks, the National Chairperson, FAWE Nigeria, Jiddere Musa Kaibo, said that if the parents do not know the importance why their children especially girl child are in the school, they will prefer they stay at home and get married.
Jiddere Musa Kaibo told the gathering that researches had shown that children especially girls drop out of schools because of several factors, assuring that they will continue to advocate for the enrollment of girl child in school.
She harped on the need to look at the education sector plan whether it is responding to the needs of boys and girls or not, advocating that if they are planning for education, they should be responding to problems.
Baring his mind, the Education Officer, FAWE Nigeria, Ibrahim Bello, Adamawa State can benefit enormously from the interface because they discussion they had revolved around commitment towards making 2025 education budget gender responsive.
Ibrahim disclosed that they had also deliberated on how some line items can be included in the budget to encourage more girls to go come to schools and how to make provisions that meet the specific needs of the boys and girls in schools.
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