Lack of access to safe school environment, poverty, banditry, insurgency, communal clashes and climate change have been identified as some of the challenges bedevilling girls education in Nigeria.
UNICEF Senior education manager,who also doubles as manager girl education project (GEP 3) manager, Mr Micheal Banda stated this during a dialogue organized by Katsina State universal basic education board (SUBEB), in collaboration with UNICEF, organized for journalists in katsina.
According to him,Nigeria continue to have more out of school children than any other country globally as one in three children in Nigeria are out of school representing 18.3 million children
Mr. Banda explained that, significant education investment is needed to address poverty and inequality in Nigeria, the region and globally.
“A lot of barriers on girl child education motivated FCDO to release intervention funds”
In his paper titled ‘Situation of girls education in katsina’ an education specialist working with UNICEF, Dr Muntaka Mukhtar UNICEF, has traced the high rate of out of school children problem in the Northwestern part of the country, saying Kano and Katsina have been rated as the states with the highest numbers.
Dr. Muntaka Mukhtar explained that available statistics reveals that about 536,132 children were not in school in Katsina State alone.
The expert noted that 300,001 girls were been enrolled in basic schools in Katsina State due to the state government’s effort to address the challenge of girls not gaining any form of education
” joint collaboration between foreign partners and the Nigerian Government Coupled with the maximum support and cooperation of parents and stakeholders the menace would come to an end”
In his remarks, communication specialist, UNICEF filed office Kano, Mr. Samuel Kaalu said the dialogue was organized to aquint journalists with the required knowledge and methodologies to use while covering issues related to girls education.
He charged participants to make judicious use of the knowledge gained to achieve the desired objectives.
Also speaking,the director planning, research and statistics, katsina state ministry of education, Hajiya Husamatu Muhammad Gina, said the state would establish structures and sensitize mother’s association in the remaining twenty two non GEP 3,local governments.
She noted that the state government had also set up local government enrollment drive campaign committee in addition to capacity building for teachers to boost girl child education.
KHADIJAH ALIYU