Importance of girl-child education

The current female literacy rate (ages 15 and above) in the country is put at 59.4 percent a figure less than the male adult literacy rate of 74.4 percent.  The girls phenomenon is a less attentive issue especially their welfare and role in nation building.Some experts have identified socio-cultural patterns, religious misconceptions, poverty, teenage pregnancy […]

The current female literacy rate (ages 15 and above) in the country is put at 59.4 percent a figure less than the male adult literacy rate of 74.4 percent.  The girls phenomenon is a less attentive issue especially their welfare and role in nation building.
Some experts have identified socio-cultural patterns, religious misconceptions, poverty, teenage pregnancy and early marriage as factors militating against girl-child education.
Girls in Nigeria are often seen moving around in towns and villages and hawking items of paltry value that hardly justifies the hours spent in the burning sun. Sometimes they become vulnerable   to harassment from men.
The parents of the girl child especially the mother consider their daughters as a tool for generating incomes to the family due to poverty and illiteracy instead of sending them to school at their tender age.
 Nigeria is one of the countries listed amongst the developing nations, this is so because of her inability to harness her resources towards nation building in other sensitive areas that need special attention like the girl-child education.
Girl-child education  falls under goals two and three of the Millenium Development Goals ’s enshrined under UN’s resolution in 1996 , and which Nigeria is a member nation. Unfortunately, it received worst treatment as a result of the lackadaisical/ nonchalant attitude of Nigerian leaders.
This is one of the factors that explain the retrogression of Nigeria’s development, because it is often said that “if you educate a woman, you educate the entire society, while if you educate a man, educate a person”.
However, Nigeria recognizes education as a fundamental human right and is signatory to the major conventions for the protection of the rights of children and women, especially, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
In 2003, the Nigerian government passed into law the Child Rights Act. This Act is aimed at facilitating the realization and protection of the rights of all children. In the quest to achieve the objectives of World Conference on Education For All (EFA), and MDGs, Nigeria also enacted the Universal Basic Education (UBE) law, which provides for a nine -year free and compulsory basic education to fast-track education interventions at the primary and junior secondary levels.
The Nigerian government has been working in active collaboration with International Development Partners such as the UNICEF, DFID, UNESCO, USAID, JICA, World Bank as well as Civil Society and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) to achieve the EFA/UBE goals.
Gender equity in education has been one of the main goals targeted by Nigeria since the 1990 World Conference on Education For All (EFA), in Jomtien, Thailand . This commitment has been renewed in several international fora, including the United Nations Decade for Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI).
In the needs analysis that informed the design of Girls’ Education Project (GEP), it became clear that illiterate women in the focus communities were also very keen to become literate and numerate. Adult literacy was therefore included in the project design. One particular activity that exemplified how linkages are being established between skills training, literacy, income generation and girls’ attendance in primary school is the training of mothers and older girls in literacy and skills, including provision of resources for school uniforms for their daughters.
In support of Strategy for Accelerating Girls’ Education in Nigeria (SAGEN), other major partners are also reinforcing their efforts for girls’ education. The World Bank has recently recruited a focal point for girls education; UNESCO has commissioned research in this area, United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) has been supporting girls’ education to ensure that more girls’ remain in school longer and USAID are considering scaling up their work with Islamiyah schools in Northern Nigeria, as such schools often recruit more girls than boys.
The Ambassador’s Girls Schooling Programme (an initiative of USAID) provides US$60 per child for indigent families. A total of 13 states are targeted with two states per geo-political zone
plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Fifteen pupils per state are to benefit from the program me with the funds disbursed through NGOs. Furthermore, all the major partners are mainstreaming gender across their work.
 On the other hand, UNICEF is working in close partnership with civil society in both formal and non-formal sub-sectors, including partnership with Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), the Civil Society Coalition for Education – an umbrella organization encompassing NGOs around the country. As a result of this collaboration, the Nigerian Girls’ Education Initiative was created this year and involves over 20 NGOs operating under (CSACEFA).
The NGO sector constitutes a good delivery alternative especially in some parts of the country where access is not easy. All these are geared towards achieving girl child education.
The best legacy of every society is to have a peaceful, enlightened, knowledgeable and socially coherent life in order to archive development and growth in all sectors within their environment. The only way to achieve this is through having sound builders of that society, who are those builders, it is  ‘the girl child’ the future mother.
Makama, writes from the Department of Mass Communication,  University Maiduguri.