Toward addressing barriers to Girl Education

Education is the bedrock for advancement and development in every ideal society. Every child, irrespective of gender, is entitled to an education as a human right. This is because the gains of education are limitless. However, in recent times as in time in memorial, girl child enrollment and completion of basic education has been at an all-time low.

A recent UNICEF remote readiness survey reports that solid evidence points to a relationship between a mother's education and schooling outcomes. With findings like this, it is evident that educating the girl child is vital to societal advancement. 

Several factors and barriers contribute to keeping girls out of school and even allowing them to complete their education. In the rest of the article, we shall be examining a few obstacles identified by the Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn project in Kaduna (PERL). 

Here are some of the identified barriers to girl education

Security 

1. The persistent security challenge in the State, especially banditry and kidnapping, remain a potential threat to children, especially girls.
2. • Engagement of non-professional security personnel as school security increases the vulnerability of learners to all kinds of harassment and harmful abuses
3. • The lack of parameter fences in rural and semi-urban schools makes learners and school infrastructure vulnerable to local criminals and vandals.
4. • Conflict and violence in communities: The increasing level of insecurity in some LGAs has denied many children the opportunity to attend school.

Recommendations 

There is a need for synergy and combined efforts with the local vigilante, Joint Task Force, hunters, and other security volunteers to protect lives and school infrastructure. The State needs to implement a comprehensive school safety policy and effective response mechanism.

Socio-Cultural

Early marriage: Girls forced into marriage prematurely are likely to drop out of school.

• Child pregnancy: Girls who get pregnant are most likely to drop out of school because parents marry them off to avoid being shamed and stigmatised.

• Household chores: High burden of domestic duties and the role of caring for siblings affects girls' attendance in school poorly.

• Poor performance: Heavy workload on girls at home leads to failure and poor performance in school.

• Parents' level of exposure: Poor understanding of the benefits derived from investing in the girl-child due to parents' exposure results in non-prioritisation of girl education.

• Children with disabilities: Children with disabilities are not allowed to attend school due to a lack of confidence in their ability to learn and fear of stigmatisation.

• Cultural beliefs/social norms: Communities believe that investing in a girl-child is wasted because of erroneous beliefs that girls cannot perform well in school.

Recommendations 

Stakeholders such as traditional rulers, who are custodians of tradition, parents and communities should lend their voices to the campaign to promote girl education and implement second chance initiative education.

Economic 

Poverty: Poor families with many children will likely not send their girls to school, leaving them in a disadvantaged position.

• Street Hawking: In rural, semi-urban and urban LGAs, parents send girls to hawk due to pressing economic needs/demands in households.

• Child Labour:  Relations take girls from poor parents, promising to send them to school, but in many cases, the girls end up as domestic workers facing all kinds of abuses/harassment and no education.

• Poor skills development for girls: Lack of effective apprenticeship programs to provide soft skills to support girls' progression into education.

• Impact of Covid-19: The pandemic slowed down learning activities in the State, negatively impacting access, retention, and completion.

Recommendations

The provision of vocational & technical skills for girls can provide a means to support education progression and ensure continuous implementation of free and compulsory education.

Infrastructure and WASH facilities 

• Toilet facilities: The toilet facilities in some schools are insufficient, with only a few schools having separate toilets for girls.

• Hygiene supplies for girls during menstruation: Some girls miss school due to their inability to access sanitary supplies.

• Lack of portable drinking water: Some schools in rural and Semi-Urban LGAs lack water points for drinking and other purposes.

• Non-inclusive learning environment: Infrastructure in most schools is not disability-friendly due to the lack of ramps, wide doors etc. Additionally, schools lack essential learning and teaching materials such as white canes, brails, interpreters, itinerant teachers etc.

• Lack of safe spaces/functional guidance and counselling units: Lack of a safe and protective school environment and possible counselling services contributes to girls dropping out of school.

• Overpopulation due to increase in enrolment: School enrolment has increased in recent years due to govt enrolment initiatives such as the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), school feeding program, provision of uniforms, textbooks etc. However, the number of pupils has not been matched by a proportional increase in the number of classes, furniture, and essential supplies.

Recommendations

Government and citizens should ensure a safe, inclusive, and enabling learning environment that accommodates girls and makes them feel safe to learn. It is essential to build and strengthen a sense of community ownership by involving parents, traditional institutions, community structures and mechanisms in school improvement and management processes.

Access

• Average walking distance to school: Walking a long distance to schools has been identified as a barrier. Children have to walk long and unsafe distances to get to schools, e.g., children in Giwa travel long distances before accessing secondary school.
• School-related Gender-Based violence (SRGBV): The practice of corporal punishment and increasing sexual harassment, especially of the girl-child, has continued to thrive without sanctions for violators.
• Inadequate teacher training: No continued teacher development/ training on inclusive education practices and child protection policies in schools.
• Change of location or relocation of schools: Girls in communities where schools are far away from settlements/communities or in communities where no school exists are likely not to have an education due to distance and insecurity.
• There's weak involvement of beneficiary & School Level Accountability Mechanisms in school management processes: Weak engagement with critical community stakeholders/ influencers in education projects implementation.
• The scarcity of teachers: The number of quality teachers is still insufficient despite a government commitment to recruiting more teachers.
• Weak implementation of policy and budgets: Despite the sector retaining top priority in the State, fund releases remain a challenge

Recommendations

A safe and protective school environment will increase access, and attendance, reduce truancy and enhance retention and completion. It will also improve parental commitment to investing in girls' education.