Chair of Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Women in Parliament says lawmakers are committed to amending the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act 2004.
Honourable Taiwo Oluga declared the committee’s commitment towards ensuring free, safe and quality girls’ education up to the secondary school level during an event to commemorate the 2021 International Women’s Day (IWD) in Abuja.
Malala Fund and its education champions in Nigeria, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), and the #AmendUBEAct coalition organised the event.
The #AmendUBEAct coalition is a group of development partners, international and local organisations supporting the process to strengthen the legal framework for free, safe and quality basic education in Nigeria.
Oluga, who highlighted the need for gender-responsive education policies in Nigeria, said women make up about 100 million of the country’s 200 million population and hence the need to educate and empower women towards contributing to the nation’s development.
The federal lawmaker, according to a statement from Malala Fund, assured the development partners that the House of Representatives was committed to completing the ongoing amendment process of the UBE Act.
The UBE Act amendment bill, which is at the committee stage at the House of Representatives, seeks to extend free and compulsory education from nine to 12 years in Africa’s most populous nation.
It also seeks to ensure an increase in basic education financing and promote gender-responsive learning.
The population of out-of-school children in Nigeria is over 13 million, the highest in the world, according to a survey conducted by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Data from the UN agency also shows that 69 percent of these children are in Nigeria’s northern region, and 60 percent of them are girls.
‘Nigeria is being ranked to have the highest out-of-school children in the world. It is completely shameful to be talking about the status of basic education across Nigeria in 2021’, Chair, House Committee on Basic Education, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, lamented at the gathering.
‘When we talk about out-of-school children, we always put the numbers between ten and 13 million.
‘I believe it should be up to 20 million if all unique scenarios across the states are well-considered’.
Furthermore, the political science professor raised concerns about the menace of abduction in the country.
‘More than the pandemic, we should begin to address the dynamics of insecurity on girl-child education’, he added.
In February, gunmen killed a school pupil and abducted 27 other children in a night-time raid on their boarding school in Kagara, Niger State. Three members of staff and 12 of their relatives were also abducted.
A similar incident occurred in the northwest state of Zamfara, as 279 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe.
All the abductees were later released.
‘The Safe School Declaration includes commitments for perimeter fencing of schools with a single entrance and exit for adequate monitoring’, Ihonvbere said.
‘What happened in Kagara was a shame resulting from years of total failure! There is a need to declare a state of emergency in the education sector in Nigeria’.
Malala Fund’s recent research shows that 20 million additional secondary school-aged girls around the world may be out of school once the crisis has passed due to increased rates of poverty, household responsibilities and child labour.
‘Before the pandemic, an estimated 13.2 million children were out of school. School closures forced an additional 36 million enrolled students out of school’, Malala Fund Country Representative, Crystal Ikanih-Musa, said.
‘The Covid-19 pandemic is exasperating the girls’ education crisis in Nigeria. If leaders do not act now, we risk losing another generation of girls’.
During the event, honourables Oluga and Mansur Soro joined the group of lawmakers who have declared a commitment to girls’ education by signing the ‘Legislative Declaration on Covid-19 and Girls’ Education’.
Source: Malala Fund
Photo source: Malala Fund
