A Non-Governmental Organisation, ‘African Hub for Community Project Initiative in Nigeria’ (AfriHub) has advocated for sexual reproductive health education for pupils in government and private schools in Bauchi state.
Dr. Saba’atu Danladi, the founder of the organisation made the call in Bauchi on Thursday during a one-day conference with government officials, Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders on sexual education and teachers training.
Danladi, who explained that the organisation is supported by Plan International and funded by Global Affairs Canada, also called for improved budget lines for the training and retraining of teachers in all schools for effective service delivery in the state.
“In terms of hygiene, you hardly see gender sensitive and friendly toilets or sanitary facilities in our schools.
“Girls lack places to go during their menstrual periods to change while in school. They are looking for privacy.
“We are advocating to the state government that where there is a toilet, there should be a disposable facility for the girls to be able to dispose of their menstruation pads during school periods.
“Also, there should be a facility where they can comfortably go in and change their menstrual pads during menstrual periods while in school,” she said.
The AfriHub boss also called on the Bauchi state government to establish pad banks in schools where sanitary pads would be available for the girls to pick for use while in school.
This, she said, would improve school enrollment on the part of girls and also mitigate the level of truancy and dropouts in the state.
“We are also here to let the government know that there is the need for the continuous training of the teachers irrespective of their retirement periods.
“We are calling on all the public and private schools to support the strengthening of the training of teachers and we are advocating that the government should allocate more funding.
“Our adolescents are now faster than their parents and their teachers. Before a teacher opened that curriculum developed five years ago, the children had gone online to pick information.
“This calls for the training and retraining of the teachers who are always with these adolescents in their schools,” she said.
Also speaking during the conference, Mr Yakubu Mudi from the state Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, said that the government has been trying its best to improve girls education in the state by improving the budgetary allocation every year.
He assured that the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project keyed into by the state government would cover much of the demands of the organisation especially, building more schools and provision of WASH facilities in schools
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