Female education in Nigeria

[2] A positive correlation exists between the enrollment of girls in primary school and the gross national product (GNP) and increase of life expectancy.

[5] Education gives women a disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes, competence, confidence, independence and skills.

[8] In 1920, the colonial government started giving out grant to voluntary associations involved in education, the grant-giving lasted till the early 1950s.

In May 1961, the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UNESCO's educational plans for Nigeria were announced in a conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

[14] At the pan-African Conference held at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in March and April 1993 (three decades after the UN Declaration of the 1960s) it was observed that Nigeria was still lagging behind other regions of the world in female access to education.

The percentages of female workers in some selected professions in 2012 were as follow: architects, 2.4%, quantity surveyors, 3.5%, lawyers/jurists, 25.4%, lecturers, 11.8%, obstetricians and gynecologists, 8.4%, pediatricians, 33.3%, media practitioners, 18.3%.

According to the Examination Council of Nigeria (1994) there are still other problems, such as high drop-out rates of females students, poor performance, reluctance on the part of females students to enroll in science-based courses and poor classroom participation[23] Across various geo-political delineations in Nigeria, a greater percentage of school-age girls are needlessly out-of-school, compared with the ratio applicable to boys of same age grouping.

Also, the option of street begging by young disabled girls in order to earn income can inhibit their attendance of classes.

[7] The completion of the second Millennium Development Goal's (MDG) target i.e. ‘education for all’ by 2015 is at risk after having missed the initial deadline of 2005.

According to work done by Denga, one prominent cultural view is that it is better for the woman to stay home and learn to tend to her family instead of pursuing Western education.

[28] To explain the fact that more boys than girls participated in education, Nigerian researcher Obasi identified a host of constraints with 'Nigerian tradition' being named as top of the list.

[29][30] A study by the University of Ibadan linked the imbalance in boys' and girls' participation in schooling was to the long-held belief in male superiority and female subordination.

[31] As daughters self-identify as females with their mother and sisters, and sons as males with their father and brothers, gender stereotyping becomes institutionalized within the family unit.

[32] Also, the dominant narratives of religion in both colonial and post-colonial Nigerian society privileges men at the detriment of women, even in educational accessibility.

[24] Because Nigerian parents are known to invest in children according to sex, birth order or natural endowments, girls and boys are not exact substitutes.

[33] The disempowering colonial 'ideology of domesticity' as espoused by the practice of 'housewification' provided the springboard for women's educational imbalance in parts of Africa.

Until equal numbers of girls and boys are in school, it will be impossible to build the knowledge necessary to eradicate poverty and hunger, combat disease and ensure environmental sustainability.

According to The International Center for Research on Women, the education that a girl receives is the strongest predictor of the age she will marry and is a critical factor in reducing the prevalence of child marriage.

Policy makers also argue that literacy for women increases job opportunities and access to higher education.

[42] Although it is often viewed that a woman working in the home benefits her family, it puts a strain on the whole community as education is one of the keys to success and being able to prosper.

"Therefore educating girls translates to better health for the children, reduction in child morbidity and mortality, thus triggering off a snowball effect of achieving all the other MDGs in a sustainable manner.

[47] Nigerian women's access to formal education is still being constrained due to their unfair workload within the household division of labour.

[36] CEDAW has realized the rights and equality of woman is also the key to the survival and development of children and to building healthy families, communities and nations.

It first states, there must be the same conditions for careers, vocational guidance, and for the achievement of diplomas in educational establishments of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas.

This is encouraged by coeducation and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programs and the adaptation of teaching methods.

Sixth, is the reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programs for girls and women who have left school prematurely.

Government policies that affect girl-child education since 1985 include: Primary and secondary schools for girls:[53] Nigeria has 104 Federal Unity Colleges spread across the six geo-political zones of the country consisting: General:[55] https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/ForcedMarriage/NGO/PopulationCouncil24.pdf