GETTING EDUCATED
As someone who has spent all her life in Nigeria and has gone through all the various educational levels, I can confidently say I know a thing or two about the Nigerian educational system.
Here in Nigeria, we run a 6-3-3-4 educational system.
What this means is that we have the primary school education, the junior secondary school education, the senior secondary school education and the tertiary education, with the basic education being the primary and secondary education.
We also have the masters degree programs, PhD programmes but they are not considered essential.These levels of education are for individuals who can afford it and want to expand their scope of knowledge in a specific field.
In Nigeria, society is the biggest hindrance women have as regards attaining the greatest height in the educational ladder, where society frowns at women who bag so many degrees without getting married and having a family.
There's a popular biased saying which goes thus "A woman's place is in the kitchen".This saying is so popular, that people now accept it as a norm.Sadly this has caused a decline in the number of young educated women in the country.
Early marriage, teenage pregnancy and financial constraints are also contributing factors which hinders young ladies from attaining the highest educational level.
According to Wikipedia," In Nigeria, the ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education is approaching parity, with a gender parity index (GPI) of 0.96938 in 2018, according to Trading Economics. While global averages show near parity, regional disparities persist, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where there's a larger gap at the secondary and tertiary levels. In Nigeria, a significant percentage of children, including both boys and girls, are still out of school. Specifically, around 33% of children of primary school age are not attending school. The data indicates that approximately 32% of boys and 35% of girls of primary school age are out of school. Additionally, there are more girls than boys out of school in some regions, including Nigeria."
From the study cited above, the ratio of boys to girls is high. This means that more boys are allowed to go to school and get a degree, while their female counterparts are saddled with the responsibility of housekeeping and baby making.
I have always being an advocate of girl child education, sadly not everyone shares the same ideology with me.
It is due to lack of proper education that many of these individuals become miscreants in the society. They don't know what career path to follow and they seem lost.
The world has evolved and most of these biased sayings should not be allowed to see the light of day.I believe everyone has the right to basic education irrespective of the gender, tribe or religion and the right to advance on the academic ladder if need be.
I hope a time will come when every child, regardless of the gender, tribe or religion, has access to being education and receiving the basic educational experience to navigate through life.