Chibok girls’ WASSCE results raise girl-child education debate

The announcement on Tuesday that the West African Senior School Certificate Examination results of the 213 abducted Chibok girls were ready and undergoing review by the Federal Ministry of Education has again thrown up the challenges associated with the girl-child education in the country.

Boko Haram members stormed the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State last April and forcibly took away no fewer than 250 female pupils of the school. However, more than five months after the abduction, the Federal Government has yet to rescue the girls.

The invasion, experts, therefore say, has not only exposed the age-long practices and hindrance to the girl-child, it has also pointed to other sundry factors that have kept girls out of school. They identified rape, unwanted pregnancies, child labour and early marriage as some of the factors impeding the girl-child education.

Therefore, they are calling on the authorities to address and proffer a solution to these issues.

For instance, the Executive Director, Women’s Rights and Health Project, Mrs. Bose Ironsi, expressed regret that the girls’ abduction could halt the little gains recorded in persuading parents to send their girl children to school.

Ironsi said, “It is a vicious cycle when girls are not educated and there are other issues involved. In some parts of the country, girls are forced into early marriage and subsequently exposed to the deadly vesico vagina fistula. When this happens, the dependence level on men becomes high as they also lack economic and political empowerment.

“You will notice that it is only the children of the elite are in the limelight. The poor are getting poorer and the few who are able to send their daughters to school are now discouraged more so that the Chibok girls are still in captivity.’’

Ironsi however advised the Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and the Federal Government to declare an emergency in the education sector in the North and consider rewarding parents who send their girl-children to school.

“One of the states recently passed a bill fining anyone who withdrew their children from school for early marriage N100, 000 or a three-month imprisonment. I think it should have been life imprisonment. Education should be compulsory. If you give birth to a child, let the government monitor that child right from birth. Look at the case of the 14-year-old girl, who poisoned her suitor. It was because she was frustrated. I think we should also start giving rewards to parents who send their children to school in that region,’’ she added.

Ironsi may not be far from the truth. Between January and July last year, the Amnesty International reported the attack and destruction of over 50 primary and secondary schools in the North East. In Borno State, its Ministry of Education admitted that 15,000 children stopped attending classes between February and May last year.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, 40 per cent of Nigerian children between the ages of six and 11 years do not attend primary school in the Northern part of the country, making it the region with the lowest school attendance rate in the country, especially for girls.

Speaking at the 2014 Day of the African Child, UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office, Bauchi, Bauchi State admitted that, “even when enrolled, hundreds of children — especially girls — are not showing up for class. Although girls’ primary school attendance has generally been improving, this has not been the case for those from the poorest household.

The Federal Government alongside the private sector also came up with the Safe Schools Initiative, a $20m intervention to keep 500 schools in northern Nigeria safe from attacks.

But the intervention, according to stakeholders, is reactionary and may not address other entrenched issues, such as early marriage and child labour.

Meanwhile, efforts to speak with the Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, were not successful as of 7pm on Thursday.

However, the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Segun Odubela, told our correspondent that the state had employed both conventional and unconventional approach to get both male and female children to school.

“There are many modalities. There is the instrument of law. We have a task force that goes around the state and once they see a child that is not in school, we reach out to the parents and give them time to enroll such child. There is no punishment yet,’’ he said.

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