Women In Technical Education and Development (WITED), a Nigerian group has lamented the rising challenges surrounding girl-child education in Nigeria.
In a National conference held in Kaduna titled “Emerging Challenges: Innovation & Technology,” the women noted that aside the traditional discrimination against girl-child educational development in favour of the male child, ignorance, poverty and other forms of violence have continued to deny the female child from attaining educational development.
The chairperson of the occasion, Dr Asma’u Abdulkadir of the college of technical and vocational education, Kaduna Polytechnic in her speech said “The discrimination starts right from the home where the special preference of a male child over female the female child is well pronounced in some families.
“The girl-child was traditionally and culturally regarded as a potential housekeeper, child-bearer, drawer of water, farmer and was believed to remain in the kitchen while the men work outside the home.
“Today, the situation is slightly changing. Women are gradually struggling to get the much-needed equity in all spheres of life just like her male counterpart.”
She further added that the Nigerian government should encourage and sponsor girls to study science and technology, and there should also be gender mainstreaming at the three tiers of government in order to give women the opportunity to be part of the decision making on important issues, particularly those that are directly concerned with women.
