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Women's Education
Education is a basic human right and has been recognized as such since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. A positive correlation exists between the enrollment of girls in primary school and the gross national product and increase of life expectancy. Because of this correlation, enrollment in schools represents the largest component of the investment in human capital in most of society. Rapid socio-economic development of a nation has been observed to depend on the calibre of women and their education in that country. Education bestows on women a disposition for a life-long acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes, competence and skills.

History
In the 1960s, when most African states began to gain their political independence, there was considerable gender disparity in education. Girl’s enrollment figures were very low throughout the continent. In May 1961, the United Nation's universal declaration of human rights and UNESCO’s educational plans for Nigeria were announced in a conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A target was set to achieve 100% universal primary education in Nigeria by the year 1980. The implementation in the 1970s of the free and compulsory Universal Primary Education (UPE) was in line with this UN Plan. Ever since, UNICEF and UNESCO among many other bodies have sponsored affirmative moves, research and conferences within Nigeria on the education of girls. One such conference was the pan-African one held at Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, in March/April of 1993. At this conference (three decades after the UN declaration of the 1960s) it was observed Nigeria was still lagging behind other regions of the world in female access to education. It was also noted that gender disparity existed in education generally and that there was need to identify and eliminate all policies that hindered girls’ full participation in education. Up to the 1970s, considerably more boys than girls participated in education in Nigeria. The Nigerian woman, like her sisters in other parts of Africa, had more than her fair share of obstacles to overcome. Traditions were major constraints. She had to overcome her native traditions whose philosophy was that a woman’s place is at home. However, with the Government’s intervention and public awakening, parents began to send and keep their girl children in school. Consequently, women’s involvement became more visible. It can be noted that, purposeful plans of action led to an increase in females in schools after 1990. While more boys than girls were enrolled in 1991, a difference of 138,000, by 1998 the difference was only 69,400 thousand.

Disparity
Issues of gender equality in education have been the subject of much debate during the past decades and have become a prominent topic of debate in all countries. In Nigeria, there are large disparities between the education that boys and girls receive. Past a certain age, many girls do not have access to adequate education. Currently, the female adult literacy rate (ages 15 and above) for the country was 59.4% as against male, 74.4%. It is differences in education that has led to this gap in literacy. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria the gender gap in literacy rate at the rural level between boys and girls was 18.3 percent in favour of the boys overall. However, in the age group 6-9 years (primary school ages) it was only 3.9 percent still in favour of boys. This indicates that there is a gender dimension to educational attainment and development in Nigeria. According to the Examination Council of Nigeria (1994) there are still other problems, such as high drop-out rates of females students, poor performance, reluctance on the part of females students to enroll in science based courses and poor classroom participation Across various geo-political delineations in Nigeria, a greater percentage of school-age girls are needlessly out-of-school, compared with the ratio applicable to boys of same age grouping. . Therefore, the attainment of the second Millennium Development Goal’s target i.e. ‘education for all’ by 2015 is glaringly at a crossroads; having missed the initial deadline of 2005. In Nigeria, educational facilities are generally believed to be inadequate, and access, limited for many, especially girls and women. According to the United Nations Human Development Report (2005), Nigeria was classified as a low development country in respect of equality in educational accessibility. The combined gross enrollment for primary, secondary and tertiary schools for female was 57% compared to 71% for males. Consequently, Ojo affirms that women are fewer than men in certain socio-economic activities. According to Ojo, the percentages of female workers in some selected professions were as follow: architects, 2.4%, quantity surveyors, 3.5%, lawyers/jurists, 25.4%, lecturers, 11.8%, obstetricians and gynecologists, 8.4%, pediatricians, 33.3%, media practitioners, 18.3%.

Reason behind disparity
Women are plagued by various cultural and socioeconomic issues that prevent them from having adequate access to education. It is often viewed that it is better for the woman to stay home and learn to tend to her family instead of attending school. To explain the fact that more boys than girls participated in education, a host of constraints were identified with'Nigerian tradition' being named as top of the list. 'Nigerian tradition' was explained as one that attaches higher value to a man than a woman, whose place is believed to be the kitchen. The imbalance in boys and girls’ participation in schooling was therefore linked to the age-long belief in male superiority and female subordination. This situation was further explained as aggravated by patriarchal practices which gave girls no traditional rights to succession. Therefore, the same patriarchal practices encouraged preference to be given to the education of a boy rather than that of a girl. The decline in economic activities since the early 1980s has made education a luxury to many Nigerians especially the rural dwellers. Because Nigerian parents are known to invest in children according to sex, birth order or natural endowments, girls and boys are not exact substitutes. Often the case is that the family can only afford to send one child to school and that one child will be the son over the daughter. This is because in Nigerian families, daughters have assumed responsibilities in the home. At the commencement of colonialism and Christianity rigid binaries about everything including gender perceptions were imposed on the African mind. Thereafter, the woman’s role has come to be limited to sexual and commercial labour; satisfying the sexual needs of men, working in the fields, carrying loads, tending babies and preparing food. The disempowering colonial ‘ideology of domesticity’ as espoused by the practice of ‘housewification’ provided the springboard for women’s educational imbalance in parts of Africa. As such, the attainment of overall human development in Nigeria is being obliterated by this unevenness in educational accessibility across gender categories. The Nigerian society (pre-modern and contemporary) has been significantly dotted with peculiar cultural practices that are potently hurtful to women’s emancipation, such as early/forced marriage, wife-inheritance and widowhood practices. As daughters self-identify as females with their mother and sisters, and sons as males with their father and brothers, gender stereotyping becomes institutionalized within the family unit. Also, the dominant narratives of religion in both colonial and post-colonial Nigerian society indeed privileges men at the detriment of women, even in educational accessibility.

Significance
While most of the Millennium Development Goals face a deadline of 2015, the gender parity target was set to be achieved a full ten years earlier - an acknowledgement that equal access to education is the foundation for all other development goals. In countries where resources and school facilities are lacking, and total enrollments are low, a choice must often be made in families between sending a girl or a boy to school. Until equal numbers of girls and boys are in school, it will be impossible to build the knowledge necessary to eradicate poverty and hunger, combat disease and ensure environmental sustainability. Millions of children and women will continue to die needlessly, placing the rest of the development agenda at risk. It is extremely important that girls have access to an education. For every additional year girls go to school, they receive 20 percent higher wages and suffer 10 percent fewer child deaths. Women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care, ensure their children are immunized, be better informed about their children’s nutritional requirements, and adopt improved sanitation practices. As a result, their infants and children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished. According to The International Center for Research on Women, the education that a girl receives is the strongest predictor of the age she will marry and is a critical factor in reducing the prevalence of child marriage. The World Bank estimates that an additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths. Also, each additional year of formal education that a mother completes translates to her children staying in school an additional one-third to one-half of a year. Girls are not educated since she is considered a strain on the family's resources. Without an education, she cannot even voice her opinion, stand up for herself monetarily as well as emotionally, or battle the discrimination from a social pulpit. Additionally, girls are less likely to have access to education. UNESCO noted that this is due to sexual violence, insecure school environments and inadequate sanitation that adversely affect girls’ self-esteem, participation and retention. Textbooks, curricula and teacher attitudes have sometimes enforced negative stereotypes and have kept girls from receiving the education they need and deserve. Many policy analysts consider literacy rates as a crucial measure to enhance a region's human capital. This claim is made on the grounds that literate people can be trained less expensively than illiterate people, generally have a higher socio-economic status and enjoy better health and employment prospects. If women are these illiterate people, that makes them even more disposable to their economy. Policy makers also argue that literacy for women increases job opportunities and access to higher education. Although it is often viewed that a women working in the home benefits her family, it puts a strain on the whole community as education is one of the keys to success and being able to prosper. Women in Nigeria are harder-hit than men by poverty due to the non-challant emphasis placed on female education, and the prevalence of early marriage which tend to further impoverish the womenfolk, and subject them to statutory discrimination. The most important ingredient of employment opportunity is education, especially higher education. If employment opportunities are different, standards of living, life expectancies and other parameters of existence and of well-being, will be different. “For Nigeria to achieve the goal of being among the largest 20 economies in the world, she must rapidly educate the children, most of all, the girls. Educating girls is known to be the basis for sound economic and social development. Educating girls produces mothers who are educated and who will in turn educate their children, care for their families and provide their children with adequate nutrition,” says Dr. Robert Limlim, UNICEF’s Deputy Representative. “Therefore educating girls translates to better health for the children, reduction in child morbidity and mortality, thus triggering off a snowball effect of achieving all the other MDGs in a sustainable manner.”

Current Policies of Progression
Nigerian women’s access to formal education is still being constrained due to their unfair workload within the household division of labour. Consequently, the realization of the MDG3’s ‘gender equality and women empowerment’ targets is being impeded harshly. Moreover such unequal social and gender relations needs to be transformed in order to take women out of want and poverty. A 2007 UNESCO and UNICEF report addressed the issue of education from a rights-based approach. Three interrelated rights were specified and must be addressed in concert in order to provide education for all:


 * The right of access to education - Education must be available for, accessible to and inclusive of all children weather male or female gender.
 * The right to quality education - Education needs to be child-centered, relevant and embrace a broad curriculum, and be appropriately resourced and monitored.
 * The right to respect within the learning environment - Education must be provided in a way that is consistent with human rights, equal respect for culture, religion and language and free from all forms of violence.

UNESCO estimates that an estimated $11 billion per year is necessary to reach the 2015 EFA goals. The disparity between need and aid is apparent: aid sent to low-income countries to provide basic education in 2004 and 2005 was at an average of $3.1 billion per year. The Fast Track Initiative (FTI) provides one of the most promising paths to universal primary education by 2015. Set up as a partnership between donors and developing countries and non-governmental organizations, the FTI endorses developing countries that put primary education at the forefront of their domestic efforts and develop sound national education plans.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and acceded to by 180 States, sets down rights for women, of freedom from discrimination and equality under the law. CEDAW has realized the rights and equality of woman is also the key to the survival and development of children and to building healthy families, communities and nations. Article 10 pinpoints nine changes that must be changed in order to help African women and other women suffering from gender disparity. It first states, their must be the same conditions for careers, vocational guidance, and for the achievement of diplomas in educational establishments of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas. This equality shall be ensured in pre-school, general, technical, professional and higher technical education, as well as in all types of vocational training. Second, is access to the same curricula, the same examinations, teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and school premises and equipment of the same quality. Third, is the elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education. This is encouraged by coeducation and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programs and the adaptation of teaching methods. Fourth, the same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and other study grants. Similarly, fifth is the same opportunities of access to programs of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programs, particularly those aimed at reducing, at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing between men and women. Sixth, is the reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programs for girls and women who have left school prematurely. Seventh concern listed is the same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education. Lastly, is access to specific educational information to help to ensure the health and well-being of families, including information and advice on family planning.

Recommendations for Reform
To empower the women in Nigeria, enhanced educational opportunities are considered expedient. Consequently, the following suggestions would be relevant in the process:
 * The primary instrument to achieve socio-economic empowerment i.e. education mainstreaming should be used in a more effective and practical way so as to make real progress towards the attainment of the MDGs’ education for all’s goal by 2015 realizable
 * The secondary instrument i.e. specific, targeted actions such as abolition of school fees, free school uniforms, free feeding etc. should be utilized as a compliment of mainstreaming strategies
 * Imperialist male-gender privilege, biased traditional and religious myths impeding women’s education should be de-emphasised in Nigerian society
 * An empowering educational approach, incorporating women as invaluable partners for social development should be encouraged;
 * Skills, capabilities and achievements should henceforth take pre-eminence over obnoxious gender stereotypes in classifying and rewarding people in Nigeria.