By Kemi Yesufu
The need for girls to complete school has led to different interventions from the Federal Government, states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Despite years of investments by government at different levels as well as contributions from local and international donors towards ensuring that girls have equal opportunities, when it comes to getting quality education, the percentage of boys in school is quite higher than that of girls.
According to a 2014 UNESCO report on girls’ enrolment in schools across the country, over 5.5 million girls are out of school, while 40 per cent women and 28 per cent men have never attended school. Worst still, the net enrolment rate at primary school level is 56 per cent for girls and 61 per cent for boys.
The report showed that nearly two-thirds of women in the North West and North East regions have no education, compared to less than 15 per cent in the South South. Meanwhile, dropout rates are highest at the sixth grade of primary school and higher among girls than boys.
These not so inspiring indices on girl-child education was discussed by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at the launch of the He for She campaign recently in Abuja to mobilise one billion boys to advocate for gender equality.
“Over 40 per cent of girls on the average are illiterate and illiteracy means that they will not find decent, well-paying jobs; in many cases, they will be married off early, many will be discriminated against in inheritance rights or punitive widowhood practices.
“They will work the hardest on the farm and no doubt in the market but they will earn far less than men, even the most educated or best educated women will sometimes, probably or severally in their work life be subjected to one form of gender-based discrimination or the other, many may add to the growing statistics of domestic violence,” he said.
He further opined that giving Nigerian girls equal opportunities was not a privilege but a right, saying, “It is an entitlement, a debt paid to women, and it is not a gift, it is an entitlement, it is perhaps the greatest leap of development in contemporary history when boys and girls can today take gender equality for granted, women and girls will be free to reach their full potential, to get decent education and earn equal pay for equal work, the full potential of the other half of the population of the world will finally be unleashed and the implication of this will vastly improve the quality of life for all.”
Also speaking at the event, minister of women affairs and social development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, called for support in the renewed push to widen access for girls willing to get an education.
“We are simply asking for the opportunity to contribute our own quota to the development of our country,” the minister said.
The cheery news is that, already, certain stakeholders have taken up the challenge from the Federal Government to continually seek workable models to increase enrolment among girls.
The Faculty of Social Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the International Institute for Security are to host a conference where stakeholders would brainstorm on new programmes through which many more girls will be admitted into and complete school.
Speaking on the need to address the challenges confronting women and girls, dean of the faculty, Prof. Paul Pindar Izah, who who has for years advocated for the rights of girls, said a whole more needs to done.
He further explained that ABU decided to host a two-day event scheduled for Abuja from July 18 to 20, 2017, starting with a conference on girl child education as a means of getting more women into careers that would make them relevant in society.
The conference would culminate in the girls witnessing the women in security, defence, law enforcement honorary awards on July 20, with the hope that they would be inspired by older successful females.
“Though a lot has been done, we still need to do much more. We know as a fact that a lot of girls in the North don’t go to school, and when they do go, they end up dropping out to get married.
“It is in line with the traditions of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for us to come up with initiatives that will help build this nation. Women make up 50 per cent of our populace and if we neglect them then we are doomed.
“The conference will provide a forum to further address the important issues of girl child education, violence against women, and provide a platform to build solid networks and address other peculiar gender issues that will promote the performance of women,” Izah said
On his part, director of the conference , Dr. David Okoror, said: “Though we seem to have achieved some level of development in our national life, the Nigerian woman is perhaps more imperilled today than ever before in living memory.
“If you recall the case of the Chibok girls, the increasing reports of rape of minors and domestic violence against women and the increasing incidence of homicides, you will agree that we have a serious situation at hand.
“Several factors can be adduced for the unacceptable situation of our women and the girl child today,” Okoror said.
According to him, the largely poor implementation of policies, the negative impact of some religious teaching, conflicts, bad governance and ignorance have jointly made life difficult for girls.
“This conference, therefore, will seek new ideas from experienced female officers on how best to strengthen and develop a more robust law enforcement regime in dealing with particularly the huge problem of increasing violence against women.
“This is because law enforcement is a key pillar in the overall strategy mix to deal with issue of violence against the female gender,” he said.