By Najeeb Sani
The Kaduna State Executive Council has approved the Kaduna State Life Skills Policy and the Kaduna State Policy on Gender in Education, SPGE 2026–2030, in a move the Centre for Girls’ Education, CGE, has described as “a landmark day for education in Kaduna State”.
The approval was made by the State Executive Council chaired by Governor Uba Sani.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by the CGE Executive Director, Habiba Mohammed, the decision marks a decisive shift from time-bound, programme-based interventions to a sustainable, government-led system.
According to her, the two policies would change how schools address student development and equity.
“The Life Skills Policy equips young people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to succeed in education, employment and life beyond school,” she stated.
On the gender policy, the centre said the Gender in Education Policy provides a comprehensive framework to promote equity, inclusion, participation, retention, completion and improved learning outcomes for all learners.
She noted that the combined effect is to move the issues “from the margins of the classroom into the core of the Kaduna State education system.”
The organisation said it contributed to the frameworks through its System Strengthening project supported by Co-Impact, OASIS Initiative and the Malala Fund.
“CGE worked alongside the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), Kaduna State, and the Kaduna State Ministry of Education to develop and validate these frameworks”.
“Building on CGE’s Safe Space model, which independent evaluations show has helped reduce child marriage, increase school enrolment and delay early marriage”, she said.
This is just as the centre revealed that the AGILE programme in Kaduna has already reached over 127,319 girls and 6,250 boys aged 14 to 18, with more than 1,400 female and male teachers trained as mentors.
Habiba further said embedding the model in policy ensures that life skills education becomes a permanent feature of education landscape.
The policies, she added, are expected to deliver four key outcomes: address structural barriers to access, retention and completion of schooling, particularly for girls and other vulnerable learners, institutionalise life skills as a co-curricular, rather than an optional, donor-funded add-on, ground decisions in data across all 23 Local Government Areas of Kaduna State, and ensure sustainability beyond donor-driven programmes, protecting these gains across political and administrative cycles.
The CGE Executive Director thanked Governor Uba Sani “for his leadership and political will” and also appreciated the Commissioner for Education, Professor Abubakar Sani Sambo, “who has been instrumental in this process from the very beginning and up to serving as the Chairperson of the validation process of the policies”.
She also acknowledged AGILE Kaduna, the World Bank, KADSSEB, KSSQAA, and community leaders, saying “this achievement is the product of collective commitments.”
CGE pledged to support the next phase: “full implementation, teacher training, gender responsive education sector budgeting and monitoring, so that every girl and boy in Kaduna State can learn, grow and thrive.”