By Doris Obinna
A group, Mothers And Marginalised Advocacy Centre (MAMA Centre) has commended relevant efforts made by the international community, donor agencies and regional institutions in promoting girl-education in developing countries.
It made this known while commemorating the International Day of Education 2022, held globally January 24, with the theme, “Changing Course, Transforming Education.”
A statement signed by its Executive Director, Chioma Kanu, commended government at all levels in policy formulation and implementation towards making quality, inclusive and equitable education accessible to all, as enshrined under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).
It, however, called on government and relevant authorities to pay more policy attention and to grant equal opportunity for girl child education enrolment and attainment at all levels. “We are not unaware that absence or poor implementation of enabling policy or law that engenders the girl child education by the governments accounts for low enrolment ratio of the girls into various schools.
“Just as we express total discomfort with continuous silence by some state governments over poor indices of girl-child education enrolment and attainment, despite the recurring warning by the international community and various national institutions over its dreaded impact.”
“We on this note recall that in October 2021, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that over 1.3 million Nigerian adolescent girls are estimated to drop out every year before reaching the last year of lower secondary education, while a similar report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in December 2019 states that 9.5 million girls aged between 10 and 17 are out-of-school in the country.”