The Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives says the rising figure of uneducated girl-children along with the incidents of sexual gender-based violence in Nigeria calls for concerted efforts.
Benjamin Kalu made the call while hosting a delegation of the Female Students’ Vanguard for Girl Child Education in Nigeria based on Kano.
In May, 2022, the United Nations Children’s Education Fund, UNICEF, put the number of out of school children in Nigeria at 18.5 million.
Of this figure, the UN agency says 60%, that is over 10 million, are girls.
UNICEF says only 1 in every four girls from poor, rural families complete Junior Secondary school education.
It identifies factors responsible to include:
Poverty, Early Marriage, Insecurity, Street Hawking and Religious Beliefs.
Before the Deputy Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, are these female advocates who have come all the way from Kano state in the North west, to solicit parliament’s support towards advancing the cause of girls and women in the country.
In particular The, the group seeks a reversal of the high number of girls out of schools.
For the Deputy Speaker, more legal instruments, including establishment of more schools, are underway to address gender inequality in education.
He agrees the factors inhibiting the educational growth of girls and children generally must be confronted headlong to safeguard the nation’s future.
More importantly, Benjamin Kalu, is optimistic that the fight against the spate of terror attacks on schools would soon be won by the government of the day.
