Renowned Pharmacy Technician in Rivers State, Ms Ngozi Olisa has said that the level of girl-child education in Nigeria is low and needs to be addressed for equal inclusiveness at all levels and among all genders.
Speaking with The Tide in Afam, seat of Power of Oyigbo LGA, in an interview on the state of girl-child and low education, she noted that the enrollment of girls in school tends to go down as some of them reportedly drop out to help their parents or hawk on the streets.
According to her, we need to promote integration of western education as collaboration with Nigerian African Efforts and also to increase awareness for equity for girls’ and boys’ studies for gender studies in education. I think on the primary level, this is good as any nation but on the secondary level, the girls tend to drop out of school and that has to be addressed especially in the sciences”.
As she put it, “most girls, by the time they are in secondary school, are already helping their parents especially their mothers and there has to be an arrangement where they have more time to study when they are at home because it is not enough to just leave them like that”.
Olisa said that just like the boys, girls need to concentrate on their studies so that they will be prepared to face the next phase in their education”.
She explained that this is seen more in the rural areas where the infrastructure are not available and sometimes not accessible, noting that, it is amazing that simple things like good sanitation, good toilets, so that boys and girls have privacy while they are in school are not there.
The health expert maintained that these are what keep children in school both male and female so that they feel safe that the school is taking care of them and will help them move up.
On the issue of girl-child education in the United States of America, she said: “we have our own gap on girl-child education in the US, though, it is not as severe as this, but we still have our own gaps.
Like in the sciences, girls are still under-represented in the United States, stressing that the two exceptions are normally nursing and pharmacy just like here in Nigeria but we still struggle for equity in gender for the sciences and technology is a bit better because more girls are moving out but at the corporate level.
She further pointed out that there is not enough female chief executive officers running the technology and science industry, promising to address that as is done in the United States of America.