It is often said that when you educate a woman you educate a nation. When women are given responsibilities in public offices, they do better than their male counterparts because of their sympathetic nature.
The Nigerian constitution clearly stipulates that every child, boy or girl, has the right to education. Actually, the constitution even requires a free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 through 15 years. therefore education is not meant for any gender.
Therefore, educating the girl child translates to better health for the future generation, reduction in child morbidity and mortality thus triggering a snowball effect of achieving all other Sustainable Development Goals in a viable manner.
The girl child needs to be educated to acquire knowledge and skills needed to advance her status for social interactions and self-improvement.
The girl child education also prepares her to face the reality in society and teaches her to be a good wife and mother, It goes without saying that the woman is the foundation of the home. She could make it work or just break it. To the child, she is a friend, a teacher, a confidant, a counselor and the ‘hand that feeds’.
When she is educated, she realises the full potentials endowed in her; she discovers to be whoever and whatever she wants to be. With education, she would break the shell of ignorance and open that of self-discovery.
We have vibrant and outstanding women in Nigeria like Professor Rukaiyyatu Rufai, Mrs Farida Waziri, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, among others who confirm the saying that “What a man can do, a woman can do better.”
The lack of education denies the girl child knowledge and skills needed to advance their status.