Nigeria has over 10m out-of-school girls -UNICEF
The Chief Field Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Kano, Rahama Farah, has said that over ten million Nigerian girls are out of school.
This was disclosed during the Media Dialogue on Girls’ Education under the Girls’ Education Project-3 (GEP3), held in Kano on Wednesday.
Farah noted that Nigeria has 18.5 million out-of-school children, with over ten million of them being girls.
“Currently in Nigeria, there are 18.5 million out-of-school children. Sixty per cent of these out-of-school children are girls – that is, over ten million girls are out of school,” he said.
The UNICEF official observed that several barriers affect girl-child education in Nigeria and urged journalists to be more active in advocating against the hindrances.
“The media must also be at the forefront of advocating for the action directed at removing these barriers that hinder girls’ education such as child marriage.”
According to him, the high number of girls out-of-school had further worsened the challenge of gender inequality in the country.
“This situation heightens gender inequity, where only one in four girls from poor, rural families complete Junior Secondary school education,” he said.
Farah further noted that terror attacks on schools was among the major hindrances to girl-child education as it created an unsafe learning environment and discouraged parents from sending children to school, particularly girls.
He, however, stated that at least 1.4 million girls in Northern Nigeria now have access to education.
“I would like to express UNICEF’s appreciation to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK for funding the Girls’ Education Project-3, which started in 2012.
“This support has expanded access to education for girls, resulting in no fewer than 1.4 million girls having access to education in northern Nigeria,” he said.
Farah noted that with extra effort and support from the Nigerian government, more girls would be enrolled in school.
