Education
Source: allAfrica To commemorate this year's International Day for the African Child, stakeholders gathered recently in Lagos to discuss how to provide the girl child with unrestricted access to education of good quality.
This year's commemoration of the International Day of the African Child in Lagos provided stakeholders with another opportunity, to rub minds on the plight of disadvantaged children, especially young, vulnerable girls.
According to Wikipedia, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the defunct Organisation of African Unity, now known as the African Union (AU). It honours those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day and also raises awareness of the continuing need to improve the quality of education provided for African children.
In Soweto, South Africa, on June16, 1976, about 10, 000 black school children marched in a column more than half a mile long, protesting the poor quality of their education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young students were shot, the most famous of which being Hector Peterson. More than 100 people were killed in the protests of the following two weeks, and more than 100 were injured.
On June 16th every year, governments, stakeholders, non-governmental and international organisations meet in different parts of the continent to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the full realization of the rights of African children.
This year's theme was: A child-friendly, quality, free, and compulsory education for all children in Africa.
According tot the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), "despite progress in recent years, girls continue to suffer severe disadvantage and exclusion in education systems throughout their lives. An estimated 31 million girls of primary school age and 34 million girls of lower secondary school age were not enrolled in school in 2011. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest proportion of countries with gender parity: only two out of 35 countries. Furthermore, many countries will still not have reached gender parity. On current trends, it is projected that 70 per cent of countries will have achieved parity in primary education, and 56 per cent of countries will have achieved parity in lower secondary education.
"Girls' education is both an intrinsic right and a critical lever to reaching other development objectives. Providing girls with an education helps break the cycle of poverty: educated women are less likely to marry early and against their will; less likely to die in childbirth; more likely to have healthy babies; and are more likely to send their children to school.
"When all children have access to a quality education rooted in human rights and gender equality, it creates a ripple effect of opportunity that influences generations to come. Girls' education is essential to the achievement of quality learning relevant to the 21st century, including girls' transition to and performance in secondary school and beyond. Adolescent girls that attend school delay marriage and childbearing, are less vulnerable to disease including HIV and AIDS, and acquire information and skills that lead to increased earning power. Evidence shows that the return to a year of secondary education for girls correlates to a 25 per cent increase in wages later in life.
"While gender parity has improved, barriers and bottlenecks around gender disparities and discrimination remain in place, especially at the secondary school level and among the most marginalized children.
"There are various barriers to girls' education throughout the world, ranging from supply-side constraints to negative social norms. Some include school fees; strong cultural norms favouring boys' education when a family has limited resources; inadequate sanitation facilities in schools such as lack of private and separate latrines; and negative classroom environments, where girls may face violence, exploitation or corporal punishment. Additionally, schools often lack sufficient numbers of female teachers.
"Increasingly, adolescent girls also face economic and social demands that further disrupt their education, spanning from household obligations and child labour to child marriage, gender-based violence and female genital cutting/mutilation. Recent estimates show that one-third of girls in the developing world are married before age 18, and one-third of women in the developing world give birth before age 20. If all girls had secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, child marriage would fall by 64 per cent, from almost 2.9 million to just over 1 million. Inadequate or discriminatory legislation and policies often inhibit girls' equal access to quality education."
At a seminar held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos as part of the commemoration, the plight of the girl-child took center stage as an NGO, Basic Education Africa (BEAfrica), in partnership with other stakeholders, discussed how to enable every child in sub-Saharan Africa have access to basic education of good quality, as enshrined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MGDs).
The seminar, which also examined the progress made so far in girl-child education, hosted speakers like the Director of Oando Foundation, Ms. Tokunbo Durosaro; founder, Slum2School Project, Mr. Otto Orondaam and Ms. Daphne Akatugba of The Future Project Nigeria Foundation.
The event also created a platform for key education stakeholders, including representatives from the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) and students, to discuss all the issues surrounding access to basic education, especially for the girl - child, the existing interventions and the way forward.
Speaking on Promoting a Holistic and Sustainable Approach to Enabling Access to Quality Basic Education, Durosaro said that about 10.5 million Nigerian children were out of school, with two-thirds of primary school age children out of school in the northern states.
According to her, six out the 36 million Out of School girls worldwide "are Nigerians." She continued: "Average pupil/trained teachers ratio is 1: 40. In some schools in north, there are more than 200 students per trained teacher. About 17.21 per cent of the global out-of school children are Nigerians, while one in every six out-of-school children is a Nigerian. It's a pity that a lot of people underestimate what a community can do, forgetting that the community can help drive education system."
Durosaro identified the barrier to quality education in Nigeria as "inadequate government budgetary allocation," insisting that what the federal government was putting into education was nothing when compared to international standards.
She also stated that poverty was another major challenge preventing the low-income people from sending their children to school. "All they (the poor) would rather think of is how to scout for daily survival." She listed other impediments as high dropout rate, lack of good infrastructure in the public primary schools, and poorly trained/paid teachers.
She added: "A way forward in improving access and quality of basic education in Nigeria is to increase the private sector's participation in the education sector, and also to borrow a leaf from organisations which are already into this practice."
Orondaam, who spoke on Basic Education for All: Making it a Reality for the Disadvantaged Child in Nigeria, averred that the reason why cities were more developed than rural communities, "is because cities focus more on education than the rural areas." His words: "People believe the cities are more developed than the communities and that they can get the best out of them (cities). They forget that the cities are built out of the communities and developed with time."
Otto said in Lagos, slums still exist in some communities because "they have not seen a good reason why a child should go to school. This happens due to poverty and lack of faith in Nigeria."
Speaking on Education and the Future Generation: Advocating for Equality in Access to Quality Basic Education in Nigeria, Akatugba stated that Nigeria has achieved "great progress" in education since 1999, through the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) channels, initiated by UNESCO.
She said between 1999 and 2007, UNESCO estimated that the number of children enrolled in primary schools worldwide rose by more than 40 million. She noted that the net primary enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa also rose from 58 per cent to 74 per cent over the same period, "and the international aid commitments to basic education almost doubled from $2.1billion in 2002 to $4.1 billion in 2007."
But despite these achievements, she stated, "in Nigeria, over seven million school-age children still do not go to school, while at least, 17 per cent of those who go to school do not complete primary six."
She observed that in some states, poor parental impression about formal education, and the belief that education is irrelevant for girls was still high.
She said: "Access to formal schooling still poses a problem and drop-out rate is a more pronounced issue, which has multifarious dimensions. The most significant are early marriage for girls in some areas, and the engagement of boys and girl in income generating activities to supplement household income in the South East and North- East parts of the country respectively."
The solution, Akatugba affirmed "is to expand partnerships and work with the civil society and more ministries, in order to stop this gender disparity."
The Baale of Omole Land, Chief Taiwo Bakare said every community should know the role it needs to play to promote girls' education. He urged traditional rulers to show good examples by sending their own daughters to school, up to tertiary level. "By doing this, you would have set a good precedent for others to follow in the community," he said.
Besides, the community leader affirmed that everyone, including religious bodies and NGOs also has a critical role to play in encouraging young girls to acquire knowledge. "Schools in the community should as well encourage these girls by providing suitable and conducive environment for them to learn," he said.