The United Nations Children’s Fund, -UNICEF has bemoaned the number of out-of-school girls in the country, saying that over 60 percent of 10 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are of the female gender.
The UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Dr. Tushar Rane, announced this at a media dialogue on girls’ education, under the ‘Girls’ Education Project 3 (GEP 3) funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK yesterday.
He said: “Despite the benefits of educating the girl child, more than 10 million children in Nigeria — 60 percent of whom are girls — are presently out of school.
“The situation with girls’ education has been made worse by attacks on schools which have made the learning environment insecure and discouraged parents and caregivers from sending their wards, particularly girls, to schools.
“The GEP3 initiative was designed to increase the enrolment drive for girls, improve learning outcomes for girls and strengthen government’s policy-making for continued support to girl child education. The project was launched in 6 states in northern Nigeria — Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara.”
He, however, noted that the GEP3 project has effectively enhanced the enrolment of girls, saying that a total of 650,265 girls enrolled in pre-primary and Integrated Qur’anic Education.
