By Kolawole Omoniyi
Kano State continues to face significant gaps in girls’ child education, with many unable to complete their schooling due to various socio-economic and cultural barriers. While efforts are being made to improve access to education, the inadequate schools and other educational resources are pushing some parents to withdraw their daughters from school. Consequently, Kano ranks second in the number of out-of-school girls in Nigeria, as only one out of four girls complete secondary school in the state. However, in this report filed by Kolawole Omoniyi, advocates call for the adoption of a gender-responsive approach to boost the transition and completion records of girls’ education in the state.
About twenty-one percent of young girls were married off globally before they attained the age of eighteen, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report 2020.
Alarmingly, the Save the Children International (2021) report indicates that forty-four percent of these girls are in Nigeria, suggesting the country as one of the nations with the highest rates of girl-child marriage worldwide.
The report also shows that early marriage by schoolgirls is more prevalent in the northwest and northeast of Nigeria, with about 78 percent of girls in the regions married before the age of 18.
Kano—one of the northwest states—has its fair share in this stark reality. The state is ranked second in the number of out-of-school girls, as only a quarter of its girls are completing secondary school, according to UNICEF.
Child marriage violates the Nigerian constitution (1999 as amended) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which confirm 18 as the age of majority.
I never loved him—Divorcee Speaks Out
Suwaiba Abdullahi, a 22-year-old girl, was forced to marry at the age of 13 in Jemagu village, Warawa Local Government Area, Kano State.
The nine-year marriage produced three children before the couple divorced due to alleged domestic violence.
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“I was forced into the marriage; I never loved him (her husband),” Abdullahi said, lamenting how she was subjected to physical abuse, beating, and other forms of mistreatment during her stay.
“I left my husband (name withheld) even when I was two months pregnant; I just had to do so to save my life, furious Abdullahi added.
Also, Zaliha Abdullahi, despite her desire to graduate, was forced by her parents to drop out of Junior Secondary School (JSS 3) in Gano due to poverty.
Her parents rejected her initial agreement to continue her education with her husband, fearing he would withdraw his proposal.
“My parents did not want to risk losing him (my husband) as their in-law, so they insisted I must drop out and marry him. I used to be pained whenever I saw some of my classmates who are currently in various higher institutions.”. She lamented.
Suwaiba and Zaliha’s cases are not unique to Kano, with hundreds of similar cases occurring mostly in rural areas.
However, while child marriage is permissive on religious grounds, factoring adulthood based on puberty, secondary schooling can delay or prevent it.
Lack of Access Threatens Girls Education
Gender inequality in some parts of the state is threatening girls’ secondary education, despite its impact on marriage timing.
The rural-urban divide is a significant issue due to inadequate infrastructure, transportation, and logistics issues that often neglect the outskirts of cities.
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Also, Kano State has 813 Senior Secondary Schools, with 450 for boys and 363 for girls, resulting in fewer secondary schools for girls.
For instance, the entire Warawa LGA has a single Girls Senior Secondary School, while the boys have two (one day and another boarding school). Only those residing close to the school are fortunate to attend.
The situation is causing privileged and admired girls to relocate from the LGA, while undecided girls continue dropping out of school.
This may be linked to the estimated three quarters of girls dropping out of junior and senior secondary schools in the state.
Moreover, the decline in retention and completion rates of secondary school students in the state is also attributed to the retrogressive number of schools from primary to junior secondary schools and SSS.
According to the Annual School Census (2021), Kano has 7,048 primary schools, 1,148 junior secondary schools, and just 813 senior secondary schools.
Amina Sale Muhammad had to travel 15 kilometers from Jemagu village to access the nearest senior secondary school.
Along the line, the 15-year-old student dropped out of school and sought a suitor, as her parents required, as she couldn’t afford the daily transportation to school.
“I was left with no option but to get married the same year due to pressure from my parents. In fact, some of my friends (Zaliha Muhammad, Binta Yahuza) also faced similar challenges as they dropped out of school for marriage in their first year at secondary school.
More Prospective Schoolgirls, Fewer Schools
When contacted, Hajiya Mero Bello, Executive Director of the Adolescent Health and Information Projects, said a lack of access to schools is also prompting some parents to marry off their girls prematurely.
“There are culture and tradition problems that are encouraging child marriage in Kano, but not as much as transition problems. There are not enough classrooms for girls, and the situation is forcing their parents to marry them off,” she said.
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Hajiya Mero highlighted the significant issue of insecurity in rural areas, particularly in porous schools lacking perimeter fences and other security measures.
Other factors include inadequate toilets—making girls prone to infectious diseases and forcing some of them out of schools—lack of sanitary materials for menstrual hygiene, lack of water, dilapidated classrooms, overpopulation, lack of desks, and insecurity, among others.
“There is a need to build more secondary schools, especially for girls’ education, and ensure the provision of WASH, as it is difficult for grown-up girls to attend schools without toilets, especially during their period.” Hajiya Mero explained.
Besides, another crucial factor bedeviling the girls’ education in Kano is poverty. According to UNICEF, only 9% of the poorest girls have the chance to attend secondary school in the state.
The enforcement of the state’s free and compulsory education law should have discouraged families from marrying off their daughters, but the opposite is happening.
Consequently, Kano State has a low literacy rate for young women, at 46%, compared to 73% for young men.
Governments, Partners’ Measures
The federal government introduced the Adolescent Girls Initiatives for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), a World Bank-assisted project towards enhancing secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls aged between 10 and 20.
The Kano State government keyed into the AGILE project, launching hundreds of centers under the second chance component of the project to tackle problems affecting girls’ transition, retention, and completion of secondary education.
Also, several laws, policies, and initiatives had been put in place to address the problems of adolescent girls’ education. They include the Kano State Girl-Child Education Policy, the domestication of the Child Rights Act, the Free and Compulsory Education Law, Conditional Cash Transfer Schemes, and the Kano State Early Child Care and Development (ECCD).
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The Kano State Agency for Mass Education was established in 1980 to complement the Ministry of Education in delivering its adult education programs, including second chance interventions for out-of-school adults through in-person classes, distance learning, and radio.
It’s Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics, Surajo Mahe Alkali, said the agency has 65 learning centers—at least one in each of the 44 local government areas of the state—for women with non-formal exit from primary and secondary schools.
According to Alkali, the 45-year-old agency currently enrolled 10,051 students in addition to other special programs such as girl-child classes with 29 students and enrollment of 987 street hawkers who are learning and hawking concurrently in 29 centers.
“Besides, we also have some intervention programs from development partners, such as Radio Schools with 88 classes and 3,520 students and the Save the Children Literacy Program with 4,000 students in three LGAs, including Makoda, Ajingi, and Minjirbir.” He said.
However, the director admitted that despite these programs, the agency’s enrollment is less than 20,000 students, a figure that he described as a drop in the ocean compared to three of four girls dropping out of secondary schools in the state.
Second Chance Agency Got Zero Budget Release in Two Years
Alkali added that the agency has a wide structure to entertain thousands of students, but the resource is minimal, lamenting the little or no priority attention to the release of funds to execute their capital budget.
“In 2012, we started mass literacy campaign programs with 8,074 centers across the state. The three-year program accommodated thousands of students then, but the program has stopped due to a paucity of funds.
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“For instance, we had zero release of budget for about two years before the arrival of the current government. Even in 2024, our capital budget was N700m, out of which only N9.5m, representing about 4%, was released. We got N1.5m for sensitization and media engagement and N8m for inspection.
“We had to skip other items in the budget, including expansion, renovation, and procurements. Also, our monthly overhead is 300,000 for the past 15 years. You will agree with me that this is not realistic with the current situation, so we are making moves for an upward review to N2 million.” He said.
The director advised that without building more structure, the agency’s second chance programs can boost girl-child literacy and address the out-of-school girls if the government can employ more facilitators to pave the way for the opening of more centers.
“In the course of our sensitization program, we usually advocate and secure free learning structures—either public or private—in various communities, so what the state government needs is to recruit more facilitators in those communities.” He said.
However, these measures are obviously addressing surface problems but lack the technicality to address root causes due to the absence of a gender-responsive education sector plan.
How GRESP Can Change the Narrative
Gender Responsive Education Sector Planning (GRESP) is the only education policy that mainstreams girls’ education goals within the education system and establishes performance indicators for government outcomes.
To address these challenges, Kano must align its educational laws and policies with international legal standards to prevent child marriage and address the challenges it faces.
GRESP can tremendously help in this regard. Its adoption can eliminate gender-based discrimination by ensuring equitable access to education and distribution of resources to foster an inclusive learning environment.
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Female teachers’ recruitment is also considered a role model approach to boost the retention and completion rate of girls’ education, but this is not supported by data from the Annual School Census in Kano State.
According to the annual school census (2021), the gender imbalance among male and female secondary school teachers is about 70 to 30 percent, respectively. Out of 7,947 teachers in junior secondary schools in the state, 6,209 are male and only 1,738 are female.
The GRESP approach can enhance the training and recruitment of competent teachers, especially female role models, to encourage more girls in secondary schools and boost the rate of completion.
GRESP can also provide young girls and their guardians with economic opportunities that could address the problem of poverty, aid their absenteeism in schools, and encourage them to remain focused in schools.
GRESP can also help coordinate partners supporting girls’ education by mainstreaming their initiatives into the state’s Education Sector Plan and supporting community programs that increase access to girls’ education for proper monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
In this regard, the state ministry of education, development partners, and other critical stakeholders are expected to examine gender data on enrollment, retention, and completion rates at all levels and identify gaps between boys and girls.
Gender-focused organizations and stakeholders, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), women’s organizations, teacher unions, and people with disabilities (PWDs), should participate in the analysis and development.
Also, views of women, men, boys, and girls, as well as male and female teachers, should be incorporated in the development of the state’s ESP.
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Safety and inclusivity of the school environment for all genders should also be prioritized in the ESP by reviewing cases of discrimination within educational settings, harassment, and gender-based violence.
There is also a need to appraise the gender composition of teaching staff and administrators to ensure that there are adequate female role models in secondary schools. Training of these teachers and administrators on gender-sensitive teaching practices is also inevitable.
Also, the proposed ESP should identify strategies to engage the community, parents, and guardians in promoting girls’ education by tackling the influence of social and cultural factors on girls’ education.
Finally, gender-specific indicators should be rooted in the monitoring and evaluation framework of the state ESP to track progress in the sector, and the indicators should be reviewed periodically for transparency and accountability.
The implementation of these methods would not only encourage Suwaiba and Zaliha to continue their secondary school education but also motivate them to complete their program and pursue higher education.
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