Women Status And Girl-Child Education

Iriele God's shown as model

Some decades ago the status of women in the African society was quite low. That was why in those days parents felt reluctant to send their young girls to school.

They believed that parents would not benefit from such training since the girl would eventually find herself in another family after marriage. Even now some communities still believe in such naive ideas. Educational training of the girl child in such places are neglected. The girl child then becomes handicapped.

Gender discrimination in our society, especially as it concerns the education of the girl child gave rise to the education and development action plan held in New Delhi in August 1993. Nine countries were represented in the summit Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, China Bangladesh and India.

These countries converaged to discus ways and means of achieving education for all and adopted a uniform action plan that no child was deprived of primary education for want of teacher, learning materials or a place in the primary education programme. Nigeria being one of the countries has taken a bold step in making this laudable objective fruitful.

The Child Rights Act provides a apprehensive legal frame work for protecting the rights of children in Nigeria.

Furthermore, it is concerned with drawing up uniform agenda for the children’s education industry throughout the country.

Representatives have been drawn from the ministries, media organisations, and National Council of Women Societies etc to identify obstacles to the education of the child in the state.

In some places the birth of a boy heralds joy and it is a cause for enjoyment while the birth of a girl is often a cause for concern or affect the development of our economy adversely.

UNICEF has been trying in one way or the other to bridge the gap between boys and girls. They have sponsored so many conferences with the objective of getting a consensus on girls education as a priority for educational development in Africa.

It also recognised that Nigeria is lagging behind other regions of the world in female enrolment ratio. There is need to abolish all policies that are not conducive to the enhancement of girls education and the status of women. It is hoped that the evaluation of the progress and achievements made on this set goals would manifest soon.

One should be aware girls today hold the welfare of the next generation in their hands in addition women constitute the bulk of human resources available for development. Investigation shows that there is high level of discrimination against girls education.

Concerned efforts should be made by all to redress this error. Traditional rulers, government, parents, non governmental organisations as well as policy-makers should set up to address this issue.

This could be done by implementing programmes that can empower girls like the ones we watch on RSTV through education and advocacy, thereby improving their literacy level. In the North for instance girls are sent by the parents to beg on the street. This exposes them to immoral acts, they are consequently denied western education.

Some are seen on the streets hawking food items parents guardians take note, your children are exposed to many forms of abuse. Boy or girl are entitled to education, train them.

Iriele God'sgift, shown by our model