A female consultant pediatrician with Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano, Hajiya Dr. Kudriat Ahmed has disclosed that only 20 per cent of women go to school in Northwest and Northeast Nigeria.
She also revealed that, of the global figure of out of-school children estimated at 121 millions, 65 million are girls, with over 80 per cent of them living in sub-Sahara Africa, while access to basic education, especially in northern states of Nigeria, have remained low.
Dr. Ahmed made the revelation in a paper at the occasion of the 2018 graduation and graduate empowerment of students of Womenhood School of Health Science, and launching of Nigerian Womenhood magazine in Kaduna last Thursday.
“In Nigeria, girls’ access to basic education, especially in northern states, has remained low. As few as 20 per cent in northwest and northeast of the country are literate and have attended school,” she said.
She said access to quality education is the most rewarding investment a country can make and that success of any nation is hinged on intellectual and mind management of women.
In the paper titled: “Girl- Child Education: An Imperative To Development,” Dr Ahmed said education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women, adding that offering girls basic education is one sure way of giving them much greater power of enabling them making genuine choices over the kind of life they wish to lead.
She said to improve female education, Nigeria needed to go beyond rhetoric and should involve policies and programmes with measurable results. Government, according to her, could start by making SDGs part of national development plans and monitoring progress toward those goals.
Girls’ education does not only bring the immediate benefit of empowering girls, but is the best investment in a country’s development. Educated girls develop essential life skills, including self-confidence, the ability to participate effectively in society, and protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation.
“Girl’s education also helps cutting children and maternal mortality rates, contributing to national wealth and controlling disease and health status. Children of educated women are more likely to go to school and, consequently, this has exponential positive effects on education and poverty reduction for generations to come.
“Educated women generally want smaller families and make better use of reproduce health and family planning information and services in achieving their desired family size,” she said.
