When the Girl-child demand her right for education

Education is very important for every child whether boy or girl. But it is sad that some communities still discriminate against the education of the girl child. About 57 million children around the world are not attending school. Girls make up 55% of the total number of children out of school and are often victims […]

Education is very important for every child whether boy or girl. But it is sad that some communities still discriminate against the education of the girl child. About 57 million children around the world are not attending school.

Girls make up 55% of the total number of children out of school and are often victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompany armed conflicts, UNESCO said.

There was a time that people saw it as proper not to educate girls, however, the world has begun to realize that girls’ education is essential. The modern age is the age of awakening of girls. They are trying to compete with men in all spheres of life.

Still, though, there are those people who oppose girls’ education. They say that the proper sphere of girls is the home. So, they argue that the money spent on girl’s education is wasted. This view is wrong, because girl’s education can bring about a silent resolution in the society.

Deborah Olumayowa while speaking on ‘Promoting Girls Education’, said it is important to give the girl-child solid education to enable her to stand tall in the society.

“Sadly, Nigeria has the highest number of girls not in school with 5.5 million out of school. This figure is way higher than Pakistan which used to be the highest with 3 million girls and Ethiopia with 2 million.

According to her, the number of adolescent girls in Nigeria is twice the population of Rwanda, and thrice the entire population of Libya, noting that “this is too large a number for the nation to ignore. That is why it is important that we all have good education for the population that we have.”

She enjoined parents, guardians and government to make sure that girls are in school and allowed to complete their education, adding that they must make sure that the girl-child goes into school, stays in school and completes her education so that she can contribute her quota to the progress of society.

“I am waiting for a better Nigeria where we will all be in school. Girls are important and they matter,” she said.

She was among discussants that stood in for over 20 million Nigerian girls at the Girls Summit 2018 to mark the International Day of the Girl-child (IDG) organised by the Girls Voices with the theme, ‘Advancing Girls’ Voices and Rights to End Child Marriage, End Gender-Based Violence and Promote Education’.

The founder, Girls Voices, Carolyn Seaman, said at the event that they are listening to what the girls are saying and doing their best to try and amplify the voices of the girls to the right influencer that can actually take action.

“Whether the influencers take action is a whole lot of thing itself. That is why we invited different political parties with their leaders who want to be elected here to discuss what they have for the girl-child and so that they can hear directly from the girls and take action.

“We called all the political parties’ leadership to sit and talk to the girls and tell us their girl agenda come 2019-2023. Some of the questions we asked included the situation of girls in the North-east of Nigeria.

“The girls were ready to talk to the parties unfortunately there has been no response from them. A lot of key parties were invited – PDP, APC, APGA and others – but only POWA representative showed up which also speaks about how we prioritise the issues of girls.”

Seaman said they are hoping they would see more actions and issues relating to the girl child are taken seriously; where the girls are seen as major contributors to solutions and development.

“Because many times that’s where the issues actually lie; you’re creating solutions but you didn’t interact with the girls to hear how the issues are affecting them; and get ideas that would bring the solutions they actually need. This is what we are actually trying to change with events like this,” she explained.

She also said through their programmes, they have been able to establish clubs in schools across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where girls talk about gender based violence.

“We hope this kind of  initiative gets replicated across the country because that is where we need to bring all our hands on deck and focused on the education platform; training, giving skills and advocacy on the issues.

“So it’s about creating that space where we can join our ideas together with organisations that are working in such areas so that we can create a stronger impact that gives the girls support,” the Girls Voices founder stated.