Education Minister, Adamu Pick Holes In Girls-Child Education Completion
BY KHALID IDRIS DOYA, Bauchi
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has stressed the need for stakeholders in education to re-strategize and get the girls child involved and lead discussions on the challenges they face in transiting to higher levels of education.
Mallam Adamu Adamu at ‘two-day Northern regional consultative meeting on girls’ transition from primary to junior secondary school in Nigeria’ held in Bauchi Wednesday, represented by the basic education director of his ministry, Dr. Folake O. Olatunji-David, noted that there still exists an alarming gap in terms of transition and completion by the girls.
The minister acknowledged with appreciation the many years of fruitful collaboration by the Federal Ministry of Education with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other relevant stakeholders especially on the issue of Girl Child Education.
The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Executive Secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi has in a keynote address assured that the commission and UNICEF will not rest on their oars in providing the necessary leadership and commitment to enhancing the opportunities available to the girl child for improved access and transition to further levels of learning.
Bobboyi, who expressed delight with the meeting towards removing every likely hindrance to girls’ transition to higher levels of learning, and appreciated all stakeholders for their commitment towards making this experience a reality, “UBEC is grateful to UNICEF for its willing partnership. We would also like to commend the host UBEC Department, the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB).”
The executive secretary who was Represented by the commission’s zonal director, Abubakar Jarma, said that education is recognized all over the world as the main tool that empowers communities and individuals to realize their full potentials and make meaningful contributions to self-development and the larger society.“
Considering its unique importance there has been a clarion call for all and sundry to have access to and acquire quality basic education and other life skills irrespective of gender, ethnicity, religion and other socio-economic or cultural considerations”, he said.
Dr. Hamid Bobboyi observed that a significant proportion of girl children for one reason or the other still do not have access to nor are able to utilize available basic education opportunities.
This challenge, according to him, which is becoming a trend almost in all sections of the country, negates every modern developmental aspiration and defies our collective sense of humanity and equality.
He regretted that primary school enrolment rate for the girl-child starts high and drops significantly with less than 30% of the enrollees transiting to the Junior Secondary level, saying this negative trend is in spite of various interventions by governments at federal, state levels, and the private sector.
It is for such reasons, he stated, that UBEC and other public-spirited organizations have deemed it fit to collaborate towards addressing this unacceptable practice and ensuring that the girl child is given the right attention and encouraged to acquire basic education.