A 2018 report on Girl Child Education by United Nations
International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) showed that only 45% of girls
in Northern Nigeria are enrolled in school.
Currently, the dropout rate for primary school in Nigeria is
35.6%, most of this proportion being young girls. Northern Nigeria had 13.2
million children out of school, representing 69% of out of school children in
Nigeria.
The attendance rate for girls is 45%, which means more than half of girls in the north is less than
half. This shortfall has been attributed to child marriage and cultural values
that promote women
labour and domesticity.
The situation is dire and harmful for the personal
development of the “Girl Child” and
the country, economically. There are qualitative and quantitative consequences
for this situation.
According to World
Bank, additional years of schooling increases the likelihood of higher
wages for women and reduction in child mortality rates.
Psychologists also hold that children derive a lot of their
intelligence from their mothers through interactions that fire up the various
parts of a child’s brain.
Education is the basis of other forms of development.
Education is a critical factor in employment, life expectancy and access to
opportunities.
Several interventions have been made over the years with
Nigeria creating and operating various policies from the 1980’s. Some of these
policies which include;
1986: Nomadic
Education Programme. Increase the access to education for children of Nomads
without jeopardizing pastoralism.
1991: National
Commission for Mass Literacy and Non-formal Education. A policy to motivate
parents and families to send their school-age children to school and to
establish training facilities that concentrate on domestic science, home
economics and crafts.
1994: Family
Support Basic Education Programme. A programme to encourage families living in
rural areas to send girls to go to school as a means of promoting youth
development.
1999: Universal
Basic Education. Reduction in geographic and gender disparity in school
enrolment.
2001: National
Policy on Women
2002: Education
For-all Fast Track Initiative.
2003: Strategy
for Acceleration of Girls Education in Nigeria.
2004: National
Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS).
2004: Universal
Basic Education Act.
In addition to these policies, Nigeria subscribes to global positions such as “Education for All, 2015” under the Millennium Development Goals
and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where education was declared as a
fundamental human right.
These efforts have yielded gains with primary school enrollment
increasing from 30%-80% between 1970 to 1994. However, these gains are significantly reduced
because of dropout rates of girls and
their irregular school attendance.
Child marriage, Cost of Education and Cultural
Inefficiencies have led to the high dropout rates and underdevelopment of the
girl child in the north.
The northern part of Nigeria gets our attention because any
region that has 69% of children out of school will naturally limit the progress
of the entire society.
At WEEC, we
believe that the culture in the northern part of the country be assessed and
aided by soft and encouraging legislation that will ensure girls study and stay
longer in school.
This must go side by side with an encouragement of male
child education. None should be left. A male child that drops out of school
will almost lead to another female child leaving school because of the patriarchal
nature of society. Afterall, the male child that is out of school will need a
wife.
We also need a new approach to tackling this problem. We
have largely employed a system of goal statements, monitoring and feedback to
tackle this problem. But we have not identified how to effect cultural changes
as well as other ancillary socio-economic issues in the north.
Globally, we have seen a boost, where Saudi Arabia outlawed under 18 marriage. This should be a signal to
Nigeria. If the holy grail of modern day Islam has done this, then we must see
if we can benefit from imitating such a policy.
A region where the children are encouraged to engage in
nomadism will naturally have a lot of children that will be out of school. This
nomadism goes beyond rearing cattle. It involves, the movement of young people
looking around for food and survival.
A lot of children are born into this lifestyle, and it has
become a way of life rather than an economic necessity.
We suggest that government seek behavioral change through
dialogue and communication with the people in that part of the country. We must
also seek to develop technological systems for animal husbandry and scientific
development of pasture to reduce the inefficiencies climate change brings.
This must also go alongside development of security systems to
protect the citizens in pockets of northern economic localities across the
country.
If our girls and women are educated, it will change the face
of the Nigerian society. This is what we will love to see across the length and
breadth of the country.
The girl child must be educated to foster national
development, reduce infant mortality, and promote personal development of girls
and help Nigerian women rank in higher numbers across various professions in
the world.
If Nigeria will be great, it will through people, and if we
leave the girl child out, then we have no people in the practical sense.
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