CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Gender is a set of social and cultural practice that influences the lives of men and women in every society. It is central to the way a society is organized, its orders social relationship in such a way that some individuals have greater powers than others. Riley, (1997), holds that gender affects both “power to” and “power over’’. ‘Power to’ refers to the ability to act and have access to social resources such as education, money, land or time. She noted that generally, women have less power to – go to school, inherit land and enter or refuse a marriage; they have less power compared to the men in facing decisions and less power or authority than men in the work place.
Gender influences all aspects of our lives, the schooling we received, the social rules we play and the power and the authority we command. The interpretation of this relationship can be influenced significantly by education attainment. (Igube, 2004)
These distinct roles and behaviour gives rise to the inflexible expectations on men and women and their responsibilities for producing gender inequality by systematically favouring one group over the other which women in most cases on the disadvantaged side. In fact, by all socio –economic and political indicators of gender disparities continues to be biased against women but a starting point of agreement among nearly all varieties is an understanding of gender as a social construction, something not emanating from nature but created by people as if the processes of group life (Alabi, Bathel and Alabi, 2012).
The whole idea of gender is women centred, feminism since 1940s have tried to answer the following questions;
Where are the women in every situation?
If they are not present, why?
If they are present, what exactly are they doing?
How do they experience the situation?
What do they contribute to the situation?
Though, women are actively present in most social situation, scholars, public and social actors themselves both male and female have been blind to their presence, they see them as passive wives and mothers. The concept of gender has been made clear by feminist theorists by making people to see the distinctions between:
Biologically determined attribute associated with male and female
The socially learned behaviour associated with masculine and feminist.
Ponte (2006) says that “Education is one of the most important sources of opportunity in any society”. The ability to read and write gives individuals access to a wide body of knowledge. Formal education and its related activities expose people to social life outside the family and cordial practices elsewhere. School provides entry into other opportunities such as political office, social pre-eminence and jobs with higher status and better pay. Riley, (1997), noted that nearly all developing countries women are more likely to be illiterate and to have completed fewer years of education than men (Unicef, 2007).
Girl child education is one of the most effective ways of ending poverty in a developing nation. Education equips girls and women with basic confidence in their ability to acquire and process information and increase power, the benefit of their education are seen by individuals, their families and the society at large. These benefits include:
Reducing the number of babies women have
Lowering infant and child mortality rate
Lower maternal mortality rates
Protection against HIV/AIDS infection
Increase number of women with job and higher earning. Aluko, (2005).
Before now, education was not necessarily been seen as a priority for a girl child because of cultural, poverty and so on, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria. Educating a girl was not part of their culture so girls were not allow to choose education neither were they encouraged to go to school. It is believed that the place of a girl child is in her husband’s house. As a matter of fact, some culture allow for girls to get married from the age of eight years, that is why girl child in Northern region account for the highest rate of VVF in Nigeria Ozigi and Ocho, (1981).
Millions of girls around the world has been denied of education due to some selfish believe, it has been observed that in Akwa Ibom State, the education of a female child is backward particularly among the illiterates parents, most parents are motivated to send their girl child to urban areas in search for better conditions of livelihood, while some send their girl child for house help and at the end of the day that child may be trafficated. Hellanilendu, (2005), reported that 400 children were rescued in Akwa Ibom State, which is one of the departure points for Gabon (girl child trafficking). This is not withstanding, Akwa Ibom State government as given kin interest to the education of its citizens to the extent that there are a good number of state governments own educational institutions (primary, secondary and tertiary institutions)
Despite the effort of the state government establishing more schools and also signing into law free and compulsory education policy in the state, girl child education still lag behind in the state. Despite the number of schools, girl child enrolment in primary, secondary school remains low when compared with that of the boys. Girls tend to Drop out of school earlier than boys. Also, in societies where education is not strongly regarded, boys are given precedence over girls when parents have to make a choice on whom to send to school (Igube, 2010).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In Africa, women are considered as men’s properties or pleasure objects. They are also considered as a ‘machine’ meant for producing children. These situations have resulted in unfair treatment of women especially with regards to education of the male-child than the female child. In the traditional Nigerian society, there exists a belief that women are second class citizens (Enejere, 1991).
In almost all the communities in Nigeria the girl child faces a number of disadvantages relative to the boys. There have been persistent hues and cries over the years for the emancipation of female from the shackles of the male domination and the Nigeria girl has been suppressed by gender biased stereotypes and prejudices arising from culture, religion and political settings (Obasi, 2006).
However, Jatta, (2009), maintained that literacy is a fundamental right for all girls and woman and central to the quest for poverty reduction and sustainable development which is essential for building peaceful and social, political and cultural activities in a rapidly changing world.
Literacy enhances the capacity for the participation of people in economics, social cultural and political activities in a rapidly changing world. According to Jatta two-third of those who have none or inadequate literacy skills and competencies are girls and woman, adding that there is an urgent need to dismantle the mind-set of the marginalize groups who do not placed a high premium on education of a girl-child.
Therefore, it’s against this background that the researcher tries to look at the government effort in reducing gender influences on the girl-child education, what are the causes and element contributing to the girl-child education in Akwa Ibom state and the way forward in Nigeria at large.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Broadly, the objective of this study is to find out how influence of gender affects girl child education in Akwa Ibom state. The specific objectives are:
i. To determine the influence of gender on school enrolment as it affect the girl child.
ii. To identify the factors responsible for the hindrance to girl child education in Akwa Ibom State.
iii. To examine ways in which girl-child education would be improved in Akwa Ibom State.
iv. To suggest new ways of improving the negative attitude toward the education of a girl-child.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
For the purpose of this study, the following questions have been formulated:
What is the influence of gender on the education of a girl child?
What are the factors responsible for such influence?
What the role which government played in alleviating the influence of gender on girl child education?
What are the type of government policy or programme that could help in eradicating the negative attitude toward girl child education in Nigeria?
