As part of activities marking the day of the African child, UNICEF has decided to empower female children from the northern part of Nigeria with information and knowledge to help build their capacity to stand up for themselves by enrolling them into schools.
The northern part of Nigeria was targeted because it believes that most female children in the north end their education at mostly age nine and loss interest in academics at an early stage in life.
“The focus states have the highest number of girls who do not attend school in Nigeria. Despite important education gains in recent decades, Nigeria still has the largest number of girls not in school.”
“When girls enter school, a vast majority of them do not complete primary school education. The average girl stays in school only through age nine. Less than one-third of girls in Nigeria enroll in the lower secondary school, and in northern Nigeria, less than one in 10 girls generally complete secondary education.”G4G groups will be established in more than 8,000 primary and Qur’anic schools by 2019,” it noted.
This plan is in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education and the State’s Universal Basic Education Boards to help the girl child advance through academics.
According to UNICEF, “Working with members of the Mothers Association as mentors, girls would initiate and lead a range of activities to identify barriers to the education of girls in their communities and work to remove such barriers, so girls will enroll and remain in school.”
“The G4G initiative is a commitment to improve the quality of girls’ and ultimately women’s lives by empowering girls through education,” UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, said.
The education of the girl child will eliminate early marriage in the north and will also aid development.
“By educating girls, practices such as early marriage will be uprooted and girls will be empowered to contribute to the development of their communities, states and Nigeria,” he noted.
