A Coalition known as Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM) has said Kaduna State contributes 654,990 out of school children in Nigeria, which the girl child constitute a large number.
Assistant Secretary of KADBEAM, Mr. Joshua James disclosed while fielding questions from journalists at a 2-day Media Strategic session to deepen the conversation and increase awareness on Girl education in Zaria.
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According to him, the Session which involved Media practitioners from both Prints and Broadcast was borne nout to see the bottlenecks/ barriers inhibiting girl children’s education in the state, and what the media could do differently to overcome these barriers.
“Media as the fourth realm, has the Constitutional responsibilities to hold govt on one hand and citizens on another hand accountable for their actions and inactions.
“So there is a need for us to get media people who are Interested to work around education to come on board. we have presented the barriers to them for them to see, then add to these barriers, What then can the media do in other to overcome these barriers”.
In carrying out their duties as media Professionals to look for solutions around these barriers, other challenges can hinder them, what are those hindrances, we look at them and see how, with the support Of the partners, FCDO funded program that is, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) see how we can assist for these media to go around their responsibilities”, he noted.
He disclosed that the Foreign Commonwealth development office,( FCDO) which is one of the biggest partners in Kaduna state in governance is committed to seeing that 40million girl’s children are brought back to school, and also another 20million is been able to read and write before attaining age ten.
” The FCDO has a specific target, and the target is taking 40Million girls Back to school, and another 20 Million girls be able to read and write before age ten”.
Outlining the barriers militating girl child education at the session, a resource person, Mr. Philip Daniel Yatai noted security, Social-Cultural norms, Infrastructure, Economic, and Access are among the top factors.
He said the persistent security challenge in Kaduna State especially kidnapping and Banditry remains a potential threat to education, especially for girls.
“No parameter fences in rural and semi-urban schools makes learning difficult for girls”.
He added that the social- Cultural barriers to girl child education include being forced into marriage prematurely, which likely leads to dropping out of school.
“Also lack of confidence in children with disabilities, parents’ level of exposure, household chores, and child pregnancy are other sociocultural factors affecting girl child education in the state”.
“Barriers like poverty, child labor, the impact of COVID-19, poor skills development for girls and Street hawking are also some Identified factors limiting the education of girl child.
” Insufficient toilet facilities, lack of sanitary pads supply for girls during menstruation, Infrastructural facilities most schools are not disability friendly among others are threats to girl child education”.
Similarly, he said lack of potable drinking water in some schools, lack of safe spaces, and weak guidance and counseling units in some schools also contributed to girls dropping out of schools.
“Increase in enrolment has not been matched by a proportional increase in the number of classes/facilities”.
Also, in her remarks, Co-chair, Open Government Partnership(OGP), Hadiza Umar called for the need for educating a girl child to say, if a woman is educated, it will increase the life expectancy of men, women would be less dependent on men.
“Times are hard now, so when women are Educated, that partnership that comes with marriages Is well exemplified in the sense that Women have a contribution to Family, it would not just be dependents on men, whether the man is employed or not, there is a way you find a balance”.
Assistant Secretary of KADBEAM, Mr. Joshua James disclosed while fielding questions from journalists at a 2-day Media Strategic session to deepen the conversation and increase awareness on Girl education in Zaria.
