Girls’ Education Advocacy Gets Legislative Support

Two committees of the House of Representatives have reiterated their commitment to amend the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act 2004 towards ensuring free, safe, and quality girls’ education up to secondary school level.

Communications Officer, Malala Fund Nigeria Tayo Elegbede, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the commitment was made by the House Committees on and Basic Education; and Women in Parliament.

Elegbede said that the committees made the commitment to commemorate the 2021 International Women’s Day.

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He quoted the Chairman, House Committee on Women in Parliament, Hon. Taiwo Oluga, as saying that, “women made up about 100 million of the country’s 200 million population.

“There is need to educate and empower women towards contributing to the nation’s development.”

She said that the House of Representatives was committed to completing the on-going amendment process of the UBE Act (2004).

Oluga also joined the league of lawmakers to declare an unwavering commitment to girls’ education and the amendment of the UBE Act by signing the Legislative Declaration on COVID-19 and Girls’ Education.

“The UBE Act amendment bill is at the committee stage at the House of Representatives. The bill seeks to provide a legal framework for free, safe and quality education up to twelve years,” he said.

Also, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, Chairman of, House Committee on Basic Education, said that Nigeria was ranked to have the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.

“It is completely shameful to be talking about the status of basic education across Nigeria in 2021.

“When we talk about out-of-school children, we always put the numbers between 10 – 13 million. I believe it should be up to 20 million if all unique scenarios across the States are well-considered,” he added.

He said that beyond the pandemic, we should begin to address the dynamics of insecurity on girl child education.

“The Safe School Declaration includes commitments for perimeter fencing of schools with a single entrance and exit for adequate monitoring.

“What happened in Kangara was a shame resulting from years of total failure. There is a need to declare a state of emergency in the education sector in Nigeria,” said Ihovbere.

He expressed the need for political will and democratization of budgeting processes in resolving Nigeria’s bulging out-of-school children crisis.

However, Mrs Crystal Ikanih-Musa, Country Representative, Malala Fund, said that the Malala Fund’s recent research showed that 20 million additional secondary school-aged girls around the world may be out-of-school once the crisis has passed.

She said this was due to increased rates of poverty, household responsibilities, and child labor.

“Before the pandemic, an estimated 13.2 million children were out of school. School closure forced an additional 36 million enrolled students out of school.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is exasperating the girls’ education crisis in Nigeria. If leaders don’t act now, we risk losing another generation of girls,” she said.