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Relationship Between Child’s Rights Act And Girl Child Education
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Nigeria is a signatory to many international conventions
aimed at bringing the gender imbalance in education, yet the girl-child
lags conspicuously behind. The 1984 Universal Development of Human
rights states that "every person has a right to education". Article
seven (7) of (UNICEF, 1995) and the right of the child also states
"every child (male or female) is entitled to receive free and compulsory
basic education and equal opportunity for higher education based on
individual ability."( Ayande, 1990).
In 1990, the world Conferences
on Education for All (EFA) held in Jomtien, Thailand, declared among
others, that every person shall be able to benefit from educational
opportunities designed to meet their basic learning. Despite the
concerted efforts at national and international levels to bring about
gender equality between boys and girls in many areas and particularly in
education, in equality still persist worldwide. (Mamma in Eze, 2011),
captures the fate of the girl child, "it is a well known fact that many
parents in Africa give preferential treatment to boys especially in
matters concerning education. It is really sad that up till now in some
societies, girls are still made to live in their shadows, denied
education and other rights, and socially exploited. What is more
disturbing, is that even the passage of the child rights act into law in
2003 by Law makers in Nigeria on the issue of the girl-child education
has not been fully addressed (Ayodele, 2000).
The child rights law
seeks to facilitate the realization and protection of the rights of all
children in the country regardless of their tribe, gender, and parents'
status. There is continuing national gender disparity in basic education
enrollment, retention and completion against the girl child. -Available
statistics revealed that we have about 10 million children in Nigeria,
and 60 percent are girls who are presently not in school (Jackson and
Walwana, 2009). The girl-child education has been a burning and
continues issue in the developing countries of which Nigeria is one. The
girl-child education can be compared to a coin which has two sides.
This is because in the northern part of Nigeria, the girl-child is not
encouraged to go to school, whereas in the Southern part of the country,
reverse is the case. But culturally women are confined to their
traditional roles with lots of sanctions imposed on them either by
custom, norms or religion (Onyeaku, 2001).
It has been revealed that
the girl-child education has suffered a lot in the society as cited by
Mohammed (2008). This has been the case since independence in 1960. In
the sixties, the situation was really break because out of 10 school
children that went to school beyond primary 4, only one was a girl.
Missionary activities started in certain parts of northern Nigeria
before the turn of the century. In 1860s, Baikie of Christian Missionary
Society founded a settlement at Lokoja. A school was opened the same
year and instruction was given in Hausa and Nupe languages right from
the beginning. The girl-child education in Northern states has been
lagging behind all this while in terms of education one can wonder why
the situation should persist like this in respects of the light of the
clear provisions in National Policy on Education that education is a
right for every Nigerian Child, The National Policy on Education (2004)
also has as its 5th objective, the building of a "bright land full of
opportunities for all individual". Northern states in Nigeria as a
whole, there is the presence of discrimination against girl-child in the
access to basic education. The Northern region which is so much
dominated by the Hausas who have no interest in girl-child education as
it was viewed exclusively for the male child. The girl-child was not
only denied formal education, but also the Qur'anic education. The few
girls that attempted school during western education after the
amalgamation in 1914 did that under duress.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study examined the impact of girl-child rights on education in missionary secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. The descriptive research design was used in order to assess the opinions of the respondents using the questionnaire and the sampling technique. A total of 300 (Three Hundred) respondents (made up of 150 males and 150 females) were selected and used in this study as the sample of the study which represented the entire population of the study. Five research questions were raised ... Continue reading---
