‘Strategic gender balance in access to education will spur economic development’

The clamour for an improvement to female education across the continent appears not to yielding the desired outcome despite on-going declarations from African leaders. In Nigeria for instance at 58 percent, literacy rate for females remains around eight points lower than the male literacy rate.

Statistics shows that the net ratio for female primary school attendance is also significantly lower at 56.7 percent compared to 61.6 percent for males. And these statistics need to be adjusted significantly for the North, which has some of the worst female education attainment rates of anywhere in the world. The proportion of girls to boys in school in some areas of the northern Nigeria is as low as 1:3.

It is against this identified education gender imbalance that educationists have called for an improvement if Nigeria hopes to meet its economic or social potential as a nation.

Muhtar Bakare, Pearson’s Managing Director in Nigeria observes that improving female education undoubtedly has many personal benefits for girls themselves. “The higher the level of a female’s education, the more likely she is to marry older, bear her first child older, educating girls also plays a positive role in breaking the poverty cycle, as the children of educated women experience better health, a better education themselves, and improved employment opportunities as a result” he said

Research suggests that the benefits of enhanced female educational attainment go beyond the individual and her surrounding family and community. According to UNESCO, girls’ education does not only bring the immediate benefit of empowering girls, but it also seen as the best investment in a country’s development.

Kathy Matsui, managing director/ chief Japan Strategist and Co-head of Asia Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research at Goldman Sachs in a recent study shows that educating more females can lead to a “growth premium” for countries increasing a country’s GDP and per capita income.

Matsui believes increasing Nigeria’s investment in female education could raise GDP growth in Nigeria by as much as 0.2 percent.

A report from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy’s School of Government makes the case for female education by highlighting the improvement to productivity and labour force participation rates as a result of investments in educating girls. Drawing on data from the World Bank, the report states a woman’s income rises by 10 to 20 percent for each year of schooling she undertakes.

For some years now, governments, NGOs and private investors have been working throughout the country to get more girls into school. Basic considerations such as access to female hygiene facilities and having female teachers present in the classroom are being addressed, and parents themselves are being educated so that they better understand the strong personal and community benefits that come with providing adequate education for their daughters.

As female enrolment rates improve, and more and more girls enter schools across Nigeria, focus needs to turn to ensure girls are actually learning in schools, and learning the skills that they will need to secure a sustainable future. The issue turns from enrolment rates to the quality of learning taking place. Delivering quality learning rests on having three important and interrelated elements in place namely:

Having enough teachers and ensuring those teachers are suitably trained is fundamental to improving the learning outcomes of Nigerian girls. Providing on-going professional development training for teachers to keep them highly motivated and effective is also key.

Affording all girls access to quality learning resources that promote engaged and effective learning not only aids the learning process, the provision of these resources themselves is often enough to entice learners into the classroom and lastly, Embedding locally relevant and contextualised curricula that suitably prepares learners for a 21st Century, globally orientated workforce helps to guarantee future prosperity for female learners.

These suggestions are by no means a panacea for overcoming the challenges Nigeria faces in achieving gender parity in education. However, with the personal and nation-wide incentives for ensuring our girls enjoy a meaningful and positive education so great, we need to focus on practical ways we can make universal education for girls a reality. Getting girls into school is the first step, making sure they are learning while they are there is the next.