RETHINKING THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS AS A DRIVER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
By Joshua Adachi Odey
Education is a vital tool needed for the economic growth and development of any country. It is a way for a country to invest in its citizens and propel it to economic prosperity. Educating its citizens is a way for a country to increase the value of the human capital it possesses. Education leads to improvement in technology and scientific discoveries and innovations which help improve the well-being of the people. This is why it is imperative that if any developing country wishes to attain economic prosperity it must invest in the education of its citizens, especially girls. Investing in the education of girls is a driver of economic growth and development and this is something that Nigeria must strive to achieve if it wants to reach the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG 2030) and hold to its claim of being the Giant of Africa.
Nigeria has an abysmal record on the percentage of girls that are not receiving education at the basic level. A 2022 report by UNICEF stated that about 7.6 million girls are out of school.This means that at the primary level, 3.9 million girls are not in school, and at the junior secondary level about 3.7 million. To put it in a broader context, girls make up 60 percent of over 10 million children who are out of school. These figures are at a shocking rate and are on the rise. When it comes to education in Nigeria the gender disparity is very glaring.
There are several reasons for these alarming rates of girls being out of school. General insecurity especially in most states of the north of Nigeria (where girls in schools have become the prime targets of bandits who kidnap for ransom), poverty, traditional and cultural norms about girls, and poor infrastructure of school buildings are among the top reasons for the low school attendance of girls in Nigeria. These barriers dampen the chance for girls to realize their potential. For over a decade now, girls have been randomly taken forcefully from boarding houses in schools by armed bandits for different reasons. Insecurity has displaced populations, especially in the northeast of Nigeria, and led to the closure of the entire schoolsystem in Zamfara state of Nigeria for a protracted period. The case of the Chibok girls remains fresh in our memories – they were kidnapped and most of them forcefully converted to Islamic religion and married out under-aged and against their will. Many families remain traumatized by these acts which have continued unabated and further exacerbated the fear of parents to send girls to school.
On March 7, 2024, more than 200 children were kidnapped from a school in Kuriga, a town in Kaduna state. Shortly after this another kidnapping took place in Sokoto state as the children slept at night. These ever-increasing kidnappings of students hurt girls and their parents. Many are kidnapped and sold or married off never to see their families or homes again. Even when they are rescued and restored to their respective homes and families, these girls’ parent opts to keep them in the house out of fear of such an incident happening again. It is hard to blame or criticize these parents’ thinking when kidnappers and bandits have been allowed to raid schools like hunters participating in open season. Re-entry into school for these girls become near impossible because of the way fear has ravished the hearts of these girls and their families. Going back to school,especially the place where such incidents occurred will be like reliving the tragic experience.
Poverty and cultural norms leave many of these girls vulnerable. Many parents would rather let their male children attend school and leave domestic work to the girls. In the long run, they end up marrying before the age of 18 and their mental health is negatively affected by it. The cultural norms and beliefs lead to negligence of the girl child since their parents only see them as domestic workers and child-bearing machines. Poverty also forces these girls to go on the streets where they must hustle for the sake of survival. They engage in dangerous activities such as hawking or prostitution.
So, the question is this “What needs to be done to ensure that girls stay in school and get the education they need?” Well, I believe that the first thing to address is the rampant kidnapping of school children. The alarming rate of kidnapping since the Chibok Girls incident points to the fact that insecurity needs to be dealt with decisively. The outrageous increase in kidnapping incidents and other security challenges is a clear sign that the government has neglected its sworn duty to protect and safeguard its citizens. It also shows that the government needs to change its approach toward insecurity. The need for national security reform including exploring various options such as state and community policing is more apparent than ever. Unless there is a thorough reformation of the government management of insecurity, we can only expect abductions of school children and more out-of-school girls.
A top-tier educational system is what developed countries have in common. This kind of educational system is only attainable through good investment in the system. Government should invest in infrastructure and improve the learning outcomes of children in schools. There should be easy access to quality education which will help improve their literacy, digital, and employability skills. But the most important will be investing in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M). This will provide innovators and be of great benefit to girls. The skills they will acquire from this investment will be of tremendous help to their families and the nation at large. This will increase the morale of their parents and they will in turn seek to push them further the social ladder through quality education. Nigeria’s spending on education has for years been below the benchmark set for developing countries. The government needs to understand that investing in education is investing in the future and that education should be one of the top priorities of the federal budget. It is imperative that the government seriously looks into the spending on education and creates an enabling environment for both public and private education to thrive.
Poverty is a big factor is a big hindrance to girls’ education in Nigeria. A way to alleviate poverty is for the government and private sector to work effectively together to create good quality jobs that help people come out of poverty. When we say the government should create jobs what we are saying is the government should create an enabling environment for businesses to succeed. How can this be done? The government can do this by investing wisely in infrastructure, providing quality services to the public, and most importantly respect for the rule of law regarding businesses. By stimulating economic growth, directors of businesses will gain confidence in the economy, expand their businesses, and reinvest their profits which will include hiring more people.
The private sector’s role in poverty reduction cannot be overstated. In developed and almost all developing countries it is the source of new jobs. As the private sector is enabled by the government more people are absorbed by it which will allow them to gain better income to train their children. With good income access to quality education becomes possible and more parents will seek to put their children in schools. This will reduce the problem of out-of-school girls.
Cash transfers especially unconditional cash transfers arean effective tool to use in combating poverty. By transferring cash to low-income households, a chance to improve their lives becomes more possible. Studies have shown that cash transfers both conditional and unconditional can help in improving the education of low-income families, improve per capita, increase savings, and reduce early child marriages. Cash transfer allows children to stay in school and obtain an education.
Laws are only as strong as their enforcement. To change the detrimental cultural norms that plague the girl-child in Nigeria, there is a need to enforce laws against harmful practices that may seek to keep the girl-child out of school. Punishing perpetrators of harmful practices such as early child marriages will go a long way in ensuring that girls stay in school and get the education they need to become useful members of society. The government and non-government organizations (NGOs) can collaborate to ensure that people see the long-term benefits of keeping girls in school. When people see that they stand to gain from the education of girls this can inspire the need to let go of long-standing cultural beliefs about girls. In the long run, we can expect to see the gradual erosion of harmful traditional beliefs and practices that strangle and stagnate the potential of the girl-child. Government and NGOs can collaborate to create programs that seek to eradicate these harmful practices and change the perspective on the girl-child.
If the issue of out-of-school girls is not treated as a national emergency, then we can rest assured that there will be dire consequences. For Nigeria, the economic implication of out-of-school girls is a drastic loss of labor productivity. For a low-middle-income country like Nigeria, its labor force is crucial to its economic development and prosperity. Out-of-school girls will only increase the loss of productivity. Another thing to consider is the standard of living. Nigeria is a country whose population is growing faster than its resources. More out-of-school girls mean more early marriages and with that comes lots of children whose lives will be below par. Due to poverty, their children may very well end up on the streets creating a never-ending cycle of poverty, out-of-school children, and low Gross Domestic Product Per Capital (GDP Per Capita).
The opposite is true when girls stay in school and go all the way to complete their education. There is abundant research that shows a positive correlation between girls staying in school and a country becoming more economically prosperous. By educating girls, a country brings forth diversity to its labor force. When a girl receives an education, she will go on to have fewer, healthier kids. Girls who receive more education end up with one less child. They tend to bring up healthier children who will end up being very educated making them great contributors to the national and economic development of a country. The reasons behind this are that with education comes an increase in income which helps these women come out of poverty. Research has shown that additional education leads to higher salaries. Moreover, educated girls tend to immunize their kids against diseases, and with fewer births from these girls comes a lower maternal mortality rate. This leads to a better standard of living.Education of girls does not just impact a country’s present situation but stretches well into future generations.
Nigeria is filled with examples of girls who got their education and became very influential women in our contemporary time. Take, for example, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala two times Nigeria’s finance minister who was also Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs. Before her stint in Nigeria, she worked in the World Bank for 25 years rising to become the Managing Director, Operations. Her education made her become a well-recognised development economist and her work is well-known globally. She was instrumental in obtaining debt relief from the Paris Club and spearheaded various economic reforms during her tenure as finance minister. She is currently the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. Let’s not forget the late Dr. Dora Akunyili whose work as the Director-General for the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) led to widespread reforms in the Nigerian health sector. Together with a team of female pharmacists, she was able to successfully fight against counterfeit drugs and saw the shutdown of many open-air markets. These reforms led to many lives being saved. FumilayoRansom-Kuti was another well-educated woman whose activism saw the end of the exploitation of women workers. She battled
The education of girls creates room for wondrous possibilities that we can only imagine. It enriches the country with so much potential and becomes a great driver of economic development and prosperity. Through the education of girls, we can expect to see an improvement in Nigeria’s GDP per capita, a better standard of living, and a more innovative labour force. If we hope to see Nigeria excel economically, we need to rethink investing in the education of girls. Doing so will not just impact the now but also future generations to come. If we as a country wish to know and attain true economic development we must rethink the education of girls because it will indeed lead to fruitful economic development
Joshua Adachi Odey is a
Policy Analyst, lives in Abuja
