Gender in niGeria report 2012 - Economic Commission for Africa

36 Gender in Nigeria Report 2012: Improving the Lives of Girls and Women in Nigeria
The costs of education for parents. Despite the policy commitment to free
primary education, the evidence is that in practice primary education is not
free of cost to parents. In the previous section we saw that women benefit less
from education because systematic discrimination in the labour market means they
earn less than male peers with the same level of education. For these reasons it is not
surprising to find that poorer parents are least able or willing to shoulder the cost of
educating their daughters.
The transition to secondary school is a major concern for boys as well as girls.
Net enrolment rates are low. Further work needs to be done to understand the barriers
to transition, especially from junior to senior secondary school. Early marriage is an
issue and may explain in part why girls leave school just after junior secondary school.
The cost, quality, safety and perceived benefits of school may all influence parental and
student decisions regarding the age at which marriage takes place.
Why are girls failing to achieve their potential? Underachievement in exams
by female students is a recent and growing concern. Research suggests that
poor quality teaching is an issue, but further work is required to investigate the specific
issues that inhibit the performance of girls. What constitutes “quality” for girls and their
parents? What aspects of a school’s culture help girls to perform well? What aspects
of school culture intimidate and prevent girls from learning, flourishing and doing well
in diverse Nigerian contexts? Urgent attention needs to be given to the reasons why
adolescent girls are failing to achieve their potential. Comparative analysis of dropout
rates and academic performance needs to be undertaken to identify which schools
are succeeding in retaining girls and persuading parents it is safe and worthwhile to
defer their daughters’ marriages. Lessons need to be learned from schools that create
a positive learning culture where young women flourish, whatever the economic status
of their parents.
Corporal punishment, humiliation and intimidation cause girls to drop out. The
2011 ActionAid report found that girls left school because of corporal punishment.
They describe how poorer girls were particularly likely to be beaten for non payment
of charges and levies, and the girls found this humiliating. UNICEF reports describe an
“intimidating” environment in schools. Salihu Bakari’s account of sexual harassment
of trainee teachers concludes that: “An institutional environment which has
familiarised the country’s future teachers to sexual violence against women and
taught them to accept it as ‘normal’ helps explain why it is accommodated and
perpetuated at the school level” (2008: 82). The accounts and reports by Amnesty
International suggest that, in some cases at least, school is not a safe environment for
girls. The fact that girls’ performance levels are declining suggests that more attention
needs to be given to improving the school environment and to enhancing teachers’
performance. A parent in one of Mahdi and Asubiaro-Dada’s focus groups suggested
that: “there is a need to sensitize girls not to be silent about this abuse.”