Need For Girl Child Education

The Need for Girl Child Education | Comr Hamid Amoto, Haruna

Comr Hamid Amoto, H 

    Education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women, as both the Cairo and Beijing conferences affirmed. It is also an area that offers some of the clearest examples of discrimination women suffer. Among children not attending school there are twice as many girls as boys, and among illiterate adults
there are twice as many women as men.

Offering girls basic Education is one sure way of giving them much greater power -- of enabling them to make genuine choices over the kinds of lives they wish to lead. This is not a luxury. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women establish it as a basic human right.

That women might have the chance of a healthier and happier life should be reason enough for promoting girls' education. However, there are also important benefits for society as a whole. An educated woman has the skills, information and self-confidence that she needs to be a better parent, worker and citizen.

An educated woman is, for example, likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. Cross-country studies show that an extra year of schooling for girls reduces fertility rates by 5 to 10 per cent. And the children of an educated mother are more likely to survive. In India, for example, the infant mortality rate of babies whose mothers have received primary education is half that of children whose mothers are illiterate.

An educated woman will also be more productive at work -- and better paid. Indeed, the dividend for educational investment is often higher for women than men. Studies from a number of countries suggest that an extra year of schooling will increase a woman's future earnings by about 15 per cent, compared with 11 per cent for a man.

Over recent decades there has certainly been significant progress in girls' education . Between 1970 and 1992, Combined primary and secondary enrolment for girls in developing countries rose from 38 per cent to 68 per cent -- with particularly high rates in East Asia (83 per cent) and Latin America (87 per cent). But there is still some way to go. In the least developed countries enrolment rates are only 47 per cent at the primary level and 12 per cent at the secondary level.

What would it take to improve girls' access to Education?

    Experience in scores of countries shows the importance, among other things, of:

1. Parental and community involvement:-  Families and Communities must be important partners with schools in developing curriculum and managing children's education.

2. Low-cost and flexible timetables :-  Basic education should be free or cost very little. Where possible, there should be stipends and scholarships to compensate families for the loss of girls' household labour. Also, school hours should be flexible so children can help at home and still attend classes.

3. Schools Close to Home, with Women Teachers :- Many Parents worry about girls travelling long distances on their own. Many parents also prefer to have daughters taught by women.

4. Preparation for School :-  Girls do best when they receive early childhood care, which enhances their self-esteem and prepares them for school.

5. Relevant curricula :- Learning materials should be relevant to the girl's background and be in the local language. They should also avoid reproducing gender stereotypes.

  Girl-child education has been a problem and often given minimal attention  in some rural and urban areas of the Country.
   Whether a girl should be educated or not is an unresolved issue in the latex of most cultures in Nigeria with disparities between the education that boys and girls receive.

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. 

Why Girl-child Education Is Important?

     Does Girl-Child Education have any impact in the Nigerian society or any other Society for that matter? Of course, Girl- Child Education has been identified as the backbone of the advanced societies of the world.  It is a critical issue that should not be treated with laxity.

  Its impact in the society is numerous and includes; improving the individual, causing her to be productive and not a burden to the society; it improves the economy of the society through various means such as environmental sustainability; lowers illiteracy rate which also leads to lower poverty rate. Girl- Child Education also decreases maternal mortality. This is because women with Formal Education tend to have better knowledge about health care practices.

  Cross-country studies show that an extra year of schooling for girls reduces fertility rates by five to 10 percent i.e. later marriage. Among children not attending schools, there are twice as many girls as boys and among illiterate adults, there are twice as many women as men so if the Girl-children are given education, it means the rate of illiteracy will be halved which can give room for more women to be able to contribute financially to their families thereby making their families more capable of also securing education for their children. This will also empower and improve productivity in the society.

    It would also increase women’s involvement in the political process as educated women can participate in politics and contribute to effective governance of the society. With education, women are able to understand issues relating to women and can intelligently provide solutions to such issues. Similarly, Educated women can raise their voices to be heard especially to demand for equality and fairness on issues that concern them and their families. Having a voice that could be heard leads to reduction in the rate of domestic and sexual violence.

   Girl Child Education produces women that easily embrace safe sex thereby reducing the level of sexually transmitted diseases and they also have knowledge of the preventive measures to take to avoid other diseases. A girl who completes primary school is three times less likely to contract HIV. With this statistics in mind, the World Bank calls education the window of hope in preventing the spread of AIDS among today’s children. Girl -child education is very necessary and an issue that cannot be overemphasised. Every child should be given the opportunity to be educated irrespective of the gender of the child as both sexes can bring equal growth and contributions to the society.
An African proverb says, “If we educate a boy, we educate one person; if we educate a girl, we educate a family and a whole nation.”

Furthermore; An empowered woman is full of great potentials, strength, courage and knowledge which she passes down to her child and the society. The solution to high rate of girl child drop outs from school is to encourage enlightenment campaigns on the importance of girl- child education. A lot can be done by simply spreading the message by talking to someone and continuing to do so till we see that every girl is given the opportunity to go to school. And as more girls go to school, it becomes easy to make Nigeria Great.

Conclusion:- 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 Mothers.