Education stakeholders in Ebonyi State have commended the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for reducing the rate of school dropout for girls in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
They also commended the Ebonyi State Government for successfully implementing the joint health awareness programme for adolescent schoolgirls, which brought the outcome in the state.
The programme, tagged: “Promoting School Health Education for Girls in COVID-19 era,” was sponsored by UNESCO and Peking University, China, and implemented by the Ebonyi State Universal Basic Education Board.
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It was pioneered in five local government areas of the state comprising Abakaliki, Afikpo, Ebonyi, Ezza South and Izzi.
Addressing newsmen Tuesday in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, the UNESCO Nigeria National Project Officer for Health and Wellbeing, Oladeji Adeyemi, said the outcome of the project was gladdening.
Adeyemi spoke during the dissemination of end line findings and close out of the programme in the state.
He stressed that the issue of health and wellbeing of adolescents were of paramount importance to both the government and the United Nations, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of challenges including increase in gender based violence and other vices.
He regretted that some adolescent girls dropped out of school in the aftermath of the pandemic while others regularly face bullying by male peers, teachers and even guardians which threatened their education.
He expressed satisfaction on the outcome of the programme which he observed has remedied most of the factors threatening the education of adolescents, especially girls in the selected schools and local government areas.
Adeyemi explained: “In the aftermath of COVID-19, a lot of students were not able to go back to school.
“We heard about some of them getting pregnant, and report revealed that the rate of gender-based violence also increased, and school children were not excluded from those affected.
“This programme trained teachers on issues of adolescent health and wellbeing, and also raised peer educators among the children who helped to ensure that the impact of COVID-19 is mitigated.
“I am so glad that from the evaluation findings, we were able to get such girls back to school through this Programme.
“The students were able to testify today that the issue of bullying in school and other kinds of violence have stopped because they were able to develop a protocol for effective management of such matters.”
The UNESCO representative noted that the outcome of the programme was gladdening, and expressed hope that the state government would sustain it.
Adeyemi added: “This is something that makes us glad, and we really congratulate Ebonyi state for being able to implement this programme successfully, and for being able to help schoolgirls by bringing some of them who could have dropped from school back.
“We do hope that the government will drive this initiative, to extend it to other schools and other local government areas in the state.”
In a welcome address, the Chairperson, Ebonyi State UBEB, Patience Ogodo, highlighted some of the issues identified in a baseline survey prior to the project to include knowledge gap on factual and age-appropriate information on adolescent health issues among in-school girls.
The SUBEB boss also highlighted the knowledge gap in family health education teaching methodology, lack of parent-child communication, gender-based violence and menstrual hygiene concerns, among others.
She emphasised that the project was able to achieve many positive notable outcomes within the one year of its implementation in the state, September 2022 to September 2023.
Ogodo appreciated UNESCO and its partners for such an initiative which she observed have had a far reaching positive effect in girl-child education in Ebonyi State.
The programme Manager for Ebonyi SUBEB, Grace Oboma, testified that the programme has enabled schoolgirls drop certain myths about their femininity, including menstruation, as well as emboldened them to seek health services and advice from qualified health facilities, among other benefits.
She Oboma: “Before the inception of this programme, we didn’t have teachers trained in family life and HIV education.
“But when this programme came, our teachers were trained on how to educate and counsel adolescent girls.
“From master trainers who stepped down the training to the selected schools totaling 1,354 across the five selected local government areas, the outcome was impressive.”
Oboma expressed optimism that Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, being education friendly, would empower the sustainability of the programme after the closeout.
Some students and teachers who spoke also commended the state UBEB and UNESCO for such an initiative, which they described as both impactful and exciting.
One of the girls from Holy Child Secondary School, Afikpo, Victoria Agboti, said the outcome of the programme facilitated her return to school after she got pregnant in her junior classes.
Agboti said: “I am grateful that UNESCO and SUBEB came to Ebonyi State with this programme because they changed my life.
“I would have dropped out of school, but they took me back to school through the programme and I am now in Senior Secondary 2 class.”
The programme also featured the unveiling of the project training manual for use in schools.
