Ekiti State Government distributed 2,600 laptops to 100 secondary schools on Tuesday to aid learning and develop skills.
The distribution was done in Ado-Ekiti under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Project (AGILE), a World Bank scheme.
Wife of the governor, Dr Olayemi Oyebanji, said at the distribution that the AGILE program would complement government’s free education program.
“The AGILE project is designed to respond to the challenges and constraints adolescent girls faced in accessing and completing secondary school education.
“I am glad that the project is supporting the state’s efforts at enhancing academic, digital and life skills of our adolescents.
“It gives fillip to government’s determination to groom a mass of adequately equipped youths who are global-ready’’ she said.
She assured that 900 laptops would be distributed to 35 schools, while 65 other schools would get 1,600 laptops in the next two months.
The scheme allocated 25 million dollars to Ekiti to provide laptop computers, renovate schools and provide instructional materials to empower mainly adolescent girls to keep them comfortably in school.
In her remarks, Ekiti’s deputy governor, Mrs Monisade Afuye commended the state government for partnering with the World Bank for the full implementation of AGILE scheme to boost girl-child’s access to education.
She said the scheme would help to stem spiraling teenage pregnancies, early marriages and school dropout figures – the cankerworms destroying the society and creating gender imbalance.
She lamented that thousands of girls dropped out of school because of poverty, saying AGILE is a veritable opportunity for girls of poor backgrounds to climb the ladder of education without encumbrances.
Mrs Afuye stressed that the AGILE scheme would catapult e-learning to higher pedestal for Ekiti students to compete with their counterparts elsewhere.
Also addressing the ceremony, Chairman, Ekiti House of Assembly Committee on Education, Mr Bode Adeoye, pledged Legislature’s readiness to initiate legislation to institutionalize the program for sustainability.
“As ally to the Executive arm of government, we shall support this project.
“Education is the main industry in our dear state, so promoting girl-child education is one priority we should all support.
“Women are no longer taking the backseat in Ekiti. We know that AGILE will also help in widening the girl-child’s access to education,’’ he said.
The AGILE coordinator in the state, Mrs Yewande Adesua, who stressed the importance of the AGILE scheme, appreciated the state government for taking up the challenge.
