Kogi Equips Facilitators With Skills To Curb Out-of-School Menace

Kogi State Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project has trained facilitators in 65 mass literacy education centres as part of the efforts to strengthen alternative education for out-of-school adolescent girls in the state.

The three-day life skills training, organised under the alternative education component of the World Bank-supported AGILE Project in partnership with the Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID), was held in Okene and Anyigba for the facilitators drawn from the state’s 21 local government areas.

At the opening of the training, the state project coordinator of Kogi AGILE, Alhaji Ahmed Tijani Oricha, said the programme was aimed at equipping facilitators with practical skills to mentor and empower vulnerable adolescent girls beyond literacy education.

Oricha said the project’s alternative education component complements ongoing interventions to improve school infrastructure and expand access to formal education by reaching girls who are unable to attend conventional schools.

He noted that the 65 centres established across the state underscored the state government’s commitment, with support from the World Bank, to ensuring that no girl is denied access to education because of social, economic or geographical barriers.

“The success of this intervention depends largely on the quality of our facilitators. They are not merely instructors; they are mentors, role models and agents of transformation who will help these young girls rebuild their confidence, acquire practical life skills and make positive life choices,” he said.

He urged the participants to take the training seriously, stressing that the project’s impact would be measured by the number of lives transformed through effective facilitation and sustained community engagement.

Also, the alternative education sub-component lead, Hajia Mariam Bello, said the training was designed to strengthen the facilitators’ capacity to deliver structured life skills education alongside literacy lessons.

She noted that many out-of-school girls face challenges such as poverty, early marriage, gender-based violence, poor health awareness and limited economic opportunities, adding that facilitators require not only technical knowledge but also counselling and mentoring skills to support them effectively.

The executive director of PIBCID and lead facilitator, Mrs Racheal Akande, described life skills education as critical to breaking the cycle of poverty and vulnerability among adolescent girls.

She urged the facilitators to adopt participatory teaching methods that encourage interaction, practical demonstrations and peer learning, while maintaining confidentiality and safeguarding the learners, particularly when addressing sensitive issues.