Every child has the right to a safe, formal, quality education and access to lifelong learning. However, due to a combination of factors like insecurity and poverty, many girls are forced to leave school while others never had the opportunity to go to school, in the first place.
The insecurity caused by Boko Haram, kidnapping, banditry and others in the Northeast region has increased the magnitude where many girls are abducted and some of them never returned from captivity and those who returned suffer trauma and other forms of abuse. This forces girls to leave school.
In April 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state. Also, 110 Dapchi schoolgirls in Yobe state were abducted on February 19, 2018, by same Boko Haram, among others. This has further put the girls at a disadvantage educationally as parents out of fear have increasingly kept their daughters away from school
A recent research by UNICEF reveals that there are over 10 million out of school children in Northern Nigeria, many of whom are between ages of five and 15. According to the research, the North-east, comprising Gombe, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba states, has the highest number of the out of school children. The research added that many girls in Northern Nigeria are forced out of school. This shows that even before the insurgency of Boko Haram, kidnapping and banditry in the region, education especially girl child, had encountered obstacles.
It is well known that education is one of the most powerful weapons we can use in fighting poverty, among other societal issues. This is because an investment in education is an investment in thE future. The lessons students learn in school will remain with them throughout their lives. Equipping a girl child with basic skills like reading, writing, numeracy and critical thinking enables her to understand information provided to her well beyond the school aged years and give her the opportunity to learn a meaningful livelihood.
These skills could enable a student to become an adult who can read the dosage instruction on her child’s medicine, give correct change to the market vendor, selling her food and independently run her own business. But without quality education, the consequences for girl child can be devastating and a source of insecurity in most parts of the nation, especially northeastern part of the country. And if the region continues neglecting education of girls nobody knows the consequences the area will likely bear in the near future.
Hawking is also a factor that escalates the trend of out of school children, where poor girl child education has been recorded. It’s quite obvious that, street hawking has affected the children’s educational development, particularly the girls in every angle of the region. Some children who hawk before or after school are denied their educational opportunities while others hawk before the go to school in the morning.
Also, others do their trading in the evening after school hours and some may not have the opportunity for formal education in their life time which is highly detrimental to children, particularly the future mothers. This comes as a result of impact of socio-economic tuition of parents like poverty. The fact is that, the importance of girl child educational is crucial in stabilizing and transforms lives and communities. Girl child education is crucial for national development and the role of women cannot be underestimated in that direction. “When you educate a man, you educate one but when you educate a woman, you educate a nation.” This is because the education of every child starts from the family and the mother is the first teacher. Educating the girl child produces mothers who are educated and who will in turn educate their children, care for their families, among others.
Parents and guardians should understand that early education has a lasting impact on children, especially girl child. But to ensure success, government should ban its soldiers from using schools for military purposes to avoid such schools being targeted for attacks and destruction, work with the appropriate authorities to ensure better security at schools in the North-east, and ensure that students deprived of educational facilities, whether in IDP camps, host communities, or in the slums and shanties of large urban cities are promptly given access to school in safe areas or in temporary learning spaces, with suitable books and other equipment.
The declining interest in girl child education exhibited by some parents, especially rural dwellers, today is a cause for alarm and challenge to all, following the general fillings that girl child education has become a missing link in the region. Boko Haram should immediately halt its attacks on education and all those involved in it. Learning and seeking knowledge is not an offence by any secular or religious creed. At the same time, Boko Haram insurgents and government forces implicated in unlawful attacks against students, teachers, and other civilians should be brought to justice.
Failure to act urgently may serve to entrench the perception of neglect and alienation of people in the North-east and reinforce the need for, and appeal of, unlawful and violent alternatives, such as Boko Haram, but attacks on places of educational are often that need serious attention so as to bring the culprit to book, also lasting solution on peace in the region will be a source for addressing the trend. Parents and guardians should understand that the girl child education is crucial to the development of any nation as future mothers, which will be a mechanism to bring the culprit to book of unwholesome attitude of criminals in the near future in the North-east and the country at large.
I will like to solicit the support of all to put hand on deck for now and for the next generation and get-together. The region has been backward for many years, especially on girl child education and other forms of development. Government security, individuals, corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals should make effort to reverse the trend. Today, things have changed in that aspect in the developed countries which I am sure women play a vital role for their advancement. The Hausa proverb that “karatun ya mace yakare a kicin”, meaning a woman’s education would end up in the kitchen, is totally unacceptable to the 21st Century. The people of the region must stand on their feet for a better society.
All in all, there are many factors that contribute to the development of a country, especially in the third world, where many societies begin to change their views to embrace any form of development that cannot be achieved without involving women. This is in consideration that girls are future mothers that would be able to run and vote which can be described as a huge development to a country like Nigeria. This would enhance a total development and reduce the amount of insurgency and other criminal activities in the North-east region and Nigeria in general.
Salmanu Idris Dajin, Mass Communication Department,
Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic,
Bauchi
