The Kaduna State School Census Reports 2020 reveals that 25% of adolescent girls drop out of school, a number that has no doubt increased as a result of the recent insecurities in the form of kidnapping, banditry, and unexplained killings that have rendered so many families homeless for the past 3 years. This led to the establishment of the 2019 second chance policy aimed at providing another opportunity for school dropouts to return to school. Nevertheless, the ability of married adolescent girls to key into this opportunity has been limited by the fact that it failed to consider the mental, psychological, social, and cultural changes that might have occurred in the girls (especially those forced into motherhood as a result of forced marriage or unplanned pregnancies). This produces second-time dropouts among adolescent girls who attempted to return to school due to the domestic demands brought by the roles they play as wives and mothers.
The Second Chance Education project started in 2018 with a pilot programme in Kaduna South Local Government Area at Government Girls Secondary School Tudun/Nupawa with fifty (50) drop out adolescent married girls/mothers. In the year 2019, the project was scaled up in Kajuru Local Government Area at Government Secondary School Tudun/Mare with another fifty (50) drop out adolescent girls/married. In the following year 2020, the project scaled up to three hundred (300) drop out adolescent married girls/mothers from six communities under Ikara, Kubau, Kachia and Igabi Local Government Areas. In 2021, the project continued with another three hundred (300) girls from another six communities from Soba, Kudan, Giwa, and Sanga. The project has reached 14 communities under 10 L.G.A’s across the state.
The second chance education has the capacity to reach more dropout married adolescents if it leverages Information Communications Technology (ICT) to allow them the option
to learn from home (Remotely).
objectives
● To identify the in the gaps in the policy and propose sustainable solutions and work collaboratively towards formulating sustainable solutions that can effectively address these issues
● To provide opportunities for dropouts to be re-enrolled into school, especially girls; our goal is to create pathways for those who have dropped out to return to school, with a particular focus on girls who have had to leave due marriage or other socio-economic factors
OBSERVATIONS
● Currently the Kaduna State Government has prioritized traditional learning classrooms as the only approach to implementation of the second chance education policy.
● The Out-of-School Children continue to be one of the critical challenges in the Education Sector in Kaduna State. School age Children are deprived of access to Universal Basic Education (UBE), Almajiri, itinerant Quranic religious students, children of nomadic pastoralists, married adolescent girls, and other vulnerable children who dropped out of school. The number of Out-of-School Children continues to be a source of concern in Kaduna State; with a high rate posing enormous economic and social consequences, which increases poverty of individuals, communities and nation at large, also increasing the rate of crimes and lower standard of living.
● Kaduna State has adopted the National Framework of Action to Reduce the Number of Out-of- School Children in Kaduna State. One of the strategies identified in the framework is to strengthen Best Practices and Identify Alternative Pathways to Improve Quality and Relevance of Learning for Out-of-School Children. The framework recommends the use of the ICT in education to reflect new ideologies and trends.
● Some of the major causes of dropout of school are unequal distribution of resources and opportunities persist. Gender, disability, early marriage, wealth, remoteness, cultural norms, and religious beliefs
● The Ministry of Education is collaborating with telecommunication companies to provide internet connectivity to digital laboratories.
● The overall aim and objective of the second chance education project is to support the dropped out married adolescent girls back to school to complete their Secondary School Education across the state.
● The Kaduna State government is working on domesticating National Safety, Security and Violence Free School Policy.
● There are currently 14 centers across the State benefitting from Second Chance Education Program
● Distributed 81 solar powered transistor radios to the girls in GSS T/Mare and T/Nupawa during COVID 19 lockdown to listen to E-learning program
● Established literacy and numeracy center for Vesico Viginal fistula (VVF) patients in Gambo Sawaba General Hospital
RESOLUTIONS
● Second chance education should be more than a program now that there is a state policy approved by the government on it.
● Remote learning is a more cost effective option compared to conventional methods of learning.
● Use of remote learning through digital tools will encourage a wider participation of learners who are currently interested in benefiting from the implementation of the policy but cannot because of the limitations of enrollment capacity at the various centres.
● Strengthen collaboration with stakeholders to ensure the full implementation of the policy.
● Remote learning options will serve as an incentive for out of school married adolescent girls, as conventional learning patterns are unrealistic considering their current status and family responsibilities.
● The second chance learning curriculum should include entrepreneurship and skills acquisition training to support adolescent financial empowerment.
● The Ministry of Education has agreed to facilitate the review of the second chance education policy to capture emerging issues and gaps in its implementation. These gaps include (a) the need to integrate remote learning (b). The need to adopt school vocational skills development into the second chance and other existing education policies for the state at all levels.
● The emerging realities for education now is knowledge and skills, and second chance education policy implementation should not leave out this important component. By doing so, adolescents’ rights to labour participation will be enhanced.
● A resolution to encourage the inter-ministerial and agencies collaboration to leverage state-owned resources in the implementation of the second chance learning
● Second chance learning should be flexible with language options to aid learning and improve learning outcomes among learners under the intervention.
● The Second Chance Policy should be reviewed to include experimental and practical activities in learning; vocational skills and flexible learning package; allow married adolescents to attend school in mufti.
● Provide comprehensive support services to include; counseling, career guidance, mentorship, child care services, and free transportation services.
● Recorded sessions are necessary to enable access to education content or resources at all times.
● While the government is encouraged to implement second chance education, community and non-state actors are encouraged to set up community learning hubs to overcome barriers to access by facilitating learning in clusters for disadvantaged communities.
● The ministry will work with CSOs enroll learners into the Nigeria Learning Passport
● The Ministry of Education should develop a clear implementation plan for the second chance education policy with an effective and efficient monitoring and evaluation framework.
● State and non-state education stakeholders should undertake strategic advocacy to address bad behavioural norms, cultures and practices inimical to learning for our of school adolescents.
● The policy should support building community discussion forums, peer to peer learning, and virtual social activities.
● The Ministry of Education has committed to strengthen their partnership with the Media to improve the public’s awareness on subsequent policies and programs.
● Conduct advocacy to communities especially husbands of out of school adolescent girls to support re-enrollment for completion of secondary education.
● Prioritize personal development for instructors and targeted support for beneficiaries.
● Establish learning hubs with solar powered devices.
● Strengthen ICT skills for learners to build capacity to navigate and manage devices.