The Imo State government has been urged to implement gender-responsive measures that will transform the educational system and address the barriers inhibiting girl-child education in the state.
Director, The Inclusion Project (TIP), Pamela Okoroigwe made the appeal during a training and stakeholders meeting organised by TIP in partnership with Malara Fund in Owerri, the Imo state capital.
Okoroigwe also stressed the need for the new administration in Imo to provide a functional, safe, inclusive, and gender-responsive Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in schools to keep girls in school during their periods.
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On the training and strategy meeting which according to her aimed to prepare community leaders as advocates for girl-child education, Okoroigwe said : ” there are over 20 million children in Nigeria who are unable to access free and quality basic education in Nigeria despite the free and compulsory education policy in the many states.
“The girl-child constitutes a higher percentage of this figure. Crisis, insecurity, family poverty, cultural, and poor funding have been limiting factors to quality education in Imo state.
“Young girls and young women in these communities are also faced with different barriers to accessing education including child marriage, poverty, school-related sexual and gender-based violence, and lack of feminine hygiene’’.
She opined that equitable access to quality education, particularly for girls, and educating the communities about the educational rights of the girl child can reduce conflict, insecurity, early marriage, and social injustice, leading to a healthier, wealthier, and happier population.
On the other hand, she appealed to Imo state ministries of Education and Women affairs to support the activities of the Community Education Watchdog Committee (CEWC) in the state by collaborating with them to improve girls’ child enrolment, retention, and completion in schools.
The CEWC she said, was set up to support the communities in promoting the educational rights of the child by ensuring that no child is allowed to miss school without any reason.
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