03-04-2018 | di COOPI

Niger's commitment in supporting female schooling

Floriana Bucca, head of the project devoted to Education in Emergency financed by AICS (the italian Agency for Cooperation and Development), met Ms. Yacouba Bibata, person in charge of the activities related to female schooling in the Diffa Region and supportive figure in the Primary and Secondary Education Regional Directorates for the creation of AMEs – Mother Educators’ Association (see previous article).

«Female schooling has many advantages», Bibata explains, «among which the reduction of poverty, the prevention of illnesses and violence, and the decrease of political instability. It is a catalyser for the social development and the economic growth of the entire society, not only of the girls involved. For this reason, one of my tasks is to create and support AMEs, a fundamental structure for transmitting this message to the community and therefore to the girls. Mothers are the privileged intermediaries in the communication with their daughters. In order to achieve important goals in female education, it is indispensible to involve mothers in the school’s management and to support them in their fundamental role of raising awareness in other mothers and in the community of reference».

On 5th December 2017, through the issuing of Decree No. 2017-935, the Nigerian government accomplished a significant step toward the improvement of female education. In particular, Art. 10 states that «Principals, parents, the members of school’s management structures, as well as any persons informed, must report all acts capable of compromising girls’ education and inform the competent authorities immediately concerning the occurrence of said acts». The Decree specifies the measures that the State undertakes to adopt in order to «foster girls’ access and maintenance at school». Moreover, it also specifies the active role played by management structures, among which AMEs, in the fight against the exclusion from school of female children and adolescents.

«Education allows girls to have a self-insurance, to be able to dispose of their lives, to improve the quality of their lives, to acquire knowledge of their rights and be able to defend them. COOPI’s support to AMEs is exactly this: an important help  for their self-determination», concludes Ms. Bibata.

---

Header photo: Simone Durante.