Northern Nigeria: Stakeholders Address Out-of-school Syndrome

To effectively address the persistent challenge of out-of-school syndrome in northern Nigeria, a lawyer and child rights activist in Gombe State, Barrister Martha Daniel, has advocated the incorporation of vocational and business education in schools.

The activist who is the founder of a non governmental organisation known as ‘Advocacy for Children’s Right Initiative’ made the advocacy in a conversation with me.

She said the menace of children who are out of school in the region, requires a novel approach like the incorporation of vocational and business education into the regional curriculum saying the strategy would provide girls with practical skills, empower them to become entrepreneurs and break the cycle of poverty.

Daniel, emphasised the need for a context-specific approach to education opining that environment and culture differ, hence the approach should be appropriate to the reality in the north.

“Education is a right for all but to harness the gains of education, it must be streamlined to accommodate various contexts.

“The battle to advance western education in northern Nigeria particularly amongst the girls transcends so many decades. This has witnessed so many backlash from traditional and religious leaders because of the fear of adulteration of the values which parents took years to instil in their children.

“Despite the intervention by various international donors and partners investing so much resources in education, the enrollment, retention have been far from expected.

“The northern girl loves to trade and loves business. While the school feeding programme is good, I want to suggest we among other interventions incorporate business and vocational training into our educational system and also allow these girls trade among themselves and even with the public during periods dedicated as “Trading Period” instead of the usual break time”, she suggested.

By incorporating vocational and business education, she stressed that the region could create a more inclusive and effective education system that addresses the specific needs of northern girls.

Contributing on the subject matter, the state coordinator, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA), Abubakar Abdullahi Hussain, cited systemic issues like having facilities that are not female friendly in schools as one of the factors that hinder girls’ attendance in schools.

He added that education sector plan should include training and restraining of teachers so that they would be up to date and inculcate current knowledge in children.

The CSACEFA coordinator also called for free education especially to the girl child from primary to secondary school in education plans.