UNICEF to boost girls' education

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has drawn up a five-year programme to boost girls' education in six Nigerian states starting next year, Maman Sidikou, head of UNICEF's education unit in the country said. The northern states of Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, and Bayelsa and Ebonyi in the south, were singled out because gender disparities in education are predominant, Sidikou told IRIN on Tuesday. UNICEF is working with the Norwegian Government on the programme which aims to improve access to education, retention of girls in schools and quality of curriculum delivery. It is hoped the programme will make the school environment more girl-friendly, raise awareness of teachers on gender issues, enhance their skills through innovative teaching methods. It will also make the curriculum more relevant to Nigeria's needs. Seminars to sensitise parents, community leaders will also be organised while mothers' clubs will be set up to help mothers have a voice in parent-teacher associations, Sidikou added. Some of the money will be also be used to refurbish classrooms, buy furniture, provide potable water and toilet facilities and carry out general infrastructure improvement. The programme will be managed in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education, State governments, as well as appropriate local governments and communities. According to UNICEF, only 47 percent of females in Nigeria are literate as opposed to 67 percent of males. Among persistent negative factors contributing to this situation are the retention of girls at home to carry out chores, early marriages and fear for the safety of girls. Long distance of schools from homes, misinterpretation of religious tenets, predominance of schools that are not child or girl-friendly and poverty are other factors that have aggravated the situation, UNICEF said.