Agenda for All-Round Girl-Child Education for Global Impact

AGENDA FOR ALL-ROUND GIRL-CHILD EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL IMPACT Professor Peter A. Okebukola, OFR Chairman of Council, Crawford University, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Caleb University and former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission Delivered at the 2016, Speech Day and Prize-Giving Ceremony of Queen’s College, Lagos, July 9, 2016 It is a huge delight to speak at the 2016 Prize-Giving Ceremony of Queen’s College, Lagos. I congratulate the Principal, Dr(Mrs) Lami Amodu, an outstanding college administrator who brought a new and exciting thrust to governance in Queen’s College. Before assuming office in QC, Dr. Lami Amodu was reputed to be a clearheaded, visionary, highly principled and diligent federal officer who brought her beautiful nature to bear on her posting as she beautifies the lives of people working with her and also leaves beautiful legacies behind. True to this mould in which she is cast, we can see her touch of excellence on academic and physical development of college. As a taste of this good pudding, today, the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka, a seasoned university administrator and world-class scholar, commissioned several projects which are testimonies to Dr. Amodu leaving beautiful legacies behind. I am sure she is not done yet. I am sure, Queen’s College “aint seeing nothing yet” with Dr. Amodu in the saddle. We applaud the contributions of past PQCs in making the College the envy of all. I should make special mention of Mrs M.T.F Sojirin, Mrs Omolara Euler-Ajayi, Mrs M.O.A. Ladipo, Mrs Togonu-Bickersteth and Mrs E.M. Osime. I pay special tribute to Mrs M.O.A. Ladipo who had a relatively short spell in QC but left indelible marks. May her soul continue to rest in peace. These PQCs of course did not work alone. We must document the contributions of the School Based Management Committee, The PTA, the hardworking teachers as well as the students. May God continue to bless your efforts. Let me share with you what majority of the people say about Queen’s College, Yaba. People say QC is the best girls-only secondary school in West Africa. They say it is an outstanding citadel of learning. They say the teachers are among the most committed in Nigeria in spite of all odds. They say, if you want your girl to get the best all-round education, send her to Queen’s College. This now takes me to the topic I was asked to speak on today- Agenda for All-Round Girl-Child Education for Global Impact. Before taking a dive into the short address, let me extend my congratulations to the graduating class of 2016 and all prize winners. Today marks another milestone in history as another generation of girls, who will excel, compete globally and 1 contribute meaningfully to nation building will be receiving the handshake of the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka. To call yourself a graduate of the prestigious Queen’s College means you have been granted an opportunity, one that over 65 million girls around the world covet to experience Honourable Minister, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, dear students In spite of the progress in recent years in education nationally and globally, girls continue to suffer severe disadvantages and exclusion. The global figure for out-ofschool children is estimated at 121 million, 65 million are girls with over 80 percent of these girls in sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria. Yet some of the girls who go to school finish without basic literacy and numeracy skills. Overtime, women and girls all over the world have been stereotyped as being fit for only domestic roles within the family, leading to a huge gap in education between men and women. Girls are indoctrinated not to climb too high up the education ladder so as to get a man to marry. Denying the girl-child access to education implies making her a dysfunctional member of the society. Evidence is mounting that girls, especially adolescent girls in the developing world are particularly vulnerable to violence, discrimination and other human rights violations. Yet, when girls grow up healthy, educated, safe and empowered, they can fulfil their potential to be leaders in their communities, countries and the world. In Nigeria, notable steps are being taken to enhance access, retention and achievement of the girl child in the education enterprise. Stimulated by the Universal Basic Education Act, government introduced free and obligatory nine-year basic education for both male and female children. Again most state governments have passed the child rights and protection act that will reduce the withdrawal of the girlchild from school. Yet, the road ahead is still far in terms of giving the Nigerian girlchild quality education. While the girl child holds the potential to become a great leader and effect change, her empowerment is hindered by factors such as unwanted pregnancy, forced early marriage, gender based violence, and limited access to health and other essential services. Since 2012, every October 11, the United Nations celebrates the International Day of the Girl Child. Recognising that girls are our future, the United Nations encourage all nations to implement programmes that ensure a world, free of discrimination for the girl child and young women. All round education is one of the greatest tools that can ensure freedom of the girl child from social, economic, and political barriers. What do we mean by all-round education? Let us begin the narrative with the case of three students. Student A is the most brilliant in class, scoring all the “A”s and winning all the prizes. In the hostel, her bed area is the dirtiest, ever ready to watch pornographic videos on her phone, very vulgar in speech, sneaks out to smoke, lacks respect for her seniors in school and calls the teachers and her principal by first 2 name. Student B is academically average. She studies hard, is respectful, loves her neighbour as herself, a good athlete, a good team player but spiritually bankrupt and quarrelsome. Student C is above average academically. She is disciplined, neat, respectful and honest in her dealings. Her leadership qualities were basis for making her a school prefect. This student is religious to the extreme. If I were to ask a parent who he or she will like as a daughter, I venture that most will not be too sure of their pick on account of none having all the attributes of the ideal daughter. The emerging message in this case study is that no educational system can produce an ideal person. Such a person belongs only to the utopian world. Perfection is only of God. However, we can march stoutly towards this ideal world through the provision of all-round education. All-round education, therefore means, providing learning experiences that will make the learner develop society-relevant knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. It means sound physical, emotional and spiritual development. It means developing good citizens who cherish such values as honesty, good neighbourliness, diligence, respect for elders and who detest the tendency to steal from the commonwealth. It means training students to be religiously moderate and God fearing. It means training in good morals to shun pornography, cultism, examination malpractice and bad sexual habits. Honourable Minister, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, dear students Two questions immediately arise. Do we have a curriculum to deliver this all-round education in Nigeria? Are we delivering all-round education in the Nigerian educational system especially to our girls? I submit a yes answer to the first question. NERDC at the basic education level and the regulatory agencies at the tertiary have very impressive curricula that if properly delivered can assure all-round education in good measure. On paper, the curricula of Nigerian schools are among the best in the world. They are so overloaded that we have provisions to get the child to learn to be all he or she can be cognitively, emotionally, morally, spiritually and to be a good citizen. The curricula can produce 200 Obamas for the world. Sadly, it is producing legions of crooks of followers and self-serving leaders. This now takes us to the next question of whether we are delivering the curriculum as it should be delivered for all-round education. Of course a resounding “no” is the answer. The logical follow-up question is what are the impediments to effective delivery of all-round education especially to the girl child? We can carry the basket of blames to several doorsteps. On the doorstep of government, we have policy inconsistencies and incoherence and inadequacies in funding. In one breath, government desires that quality education should be delivered for instance at Queen’s College or University of Ibadan. In another breath, it fails to provide the financial wherewithal for Queen’s College and University of Ibadan to make this happen. In terms of physical facilities, we have one of the most poorly-resourced public school system in Africa. We will hide our heads in shame if we see the quality 3 of facilities in public primary and secondary schools as well as universities in many eastern and southern Africa countries. In Nigeria, class sizes are large, in some locations, pupils learn under trees. Hostels are like pig sty. You cannot have all-round education in an environment that is harsh and unfriendly for learning. The second basket of blame goes to the teachers. Many are poorly trained and are ill-motivated. Content knowledge is abysmally low. The third basket of blame goes to the students. Reading culture poor is taken over by Facebook and African Magic culture. Immoral behaviours are rampant. Parents are next in the share of the blame. They give no home training to their children and any teacher who attempts to remedy the home-training deficiency will incur their wrath. The children are so spoilt that they think coming to school is doing their parents some favour. Parents with their ill-gotten wealth will buy teachers, buy question papers and overindulge their children and wards. Thanks to the Buhari Administration’s anti-corruption crusade that will help to reduce the ranks of these kleptomaniac parents. The places of worship are also blameworthy with poor role-modelling and teaching of warped values and intolerant religious messages. What is the way out? I offer a few suggestions as agenda for change. On account of time, I will just provide a 10-item list. 1. Reinvigorate the girl-child education project at the federal and state levels providing incentives to states that have attained or surpassed annual minimum standards. 2. Designate and differentially fund through UBEC, twelve schools (geopolitically distributed) as models for girl-child, all-round education in Nigeria. One of the schools should be a unity school and the other owned by the state, with Queen’s College, Lagos representing the unity colleges in the south-west. 3. NERDC to repackage the school curriculum making it less overloaded and containing the key elements of all-round education. 4. All teacher preparation institutions should be directed to begin from 2017, a regime of training a new generation of teachers for implementing genderinclusive, all-round education especially at the basic education level. The 500,000 teachers to be recruited by the federal government should undergo a one-month training to prepare them for delivering gender-inclusive, all-round education. 5. An effective quality assurance mechanism should be instituted to monitor the implementation of all-round education. Schools with exemplary practices should be awarded prizes. Schools in states currently brandishing low indices of girl-child education that make significant and positive gains every year, should be specially rewarded. 6. UBEC should foster the development of policies that will prohibit parents from bullying teachers and school management that are genuinely implementing moral and character training of students. 4 7. The compulsory 9-year basic education programme especially attendance of girls in schools should be vigorously enforced. 8. Sports and games that will foster physical and emotional development should be compulsory offering especially in girls’ schools. 9. Moral and spiritual growth of students should be given priority through PTA interventions. 10. All schools should teach 21st century skills such as team-work, creativity and imagination, critical thinking, problem solving and IT literacy, through cocurricular activities. Honourable Minister, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, dear student It is rather impossible to say it all in what should be a short speech. So all I have done is to provide a few snippets for thought. What now remains for me is to congratulate the graduating students and wish them well for the future. Among you, I can see the future Principal of Queen’s College, future Honourable Commissioners and Honourable Ministers, future First Ladies and future President of Nigeria. I can also see future Directors-General of UN Organisations and future captains of industry and future world-class professors. God will give you great husbands, children and grandchildren. You will be a pride to your family, to Nigeria and to the world. I congratulate the parents, family and friends. In a few years’ time, we will be celebrating their graduation for the first degree in the world’s top universities. Few years thereafter, we shall celebrate their graduation for the master’s degrees and then a little later, doctorate degrees. It is important that you keep your children firmly within your radar, monitoring their friends and performance in the university, failure which you may have lifetime regret as a consequence of their falling into bad habits and gangs. More importantly, since you cannot monitor them every second of the day, keep them in your prayers always. I congratulate everyone who is part of today’s success story. I rejoice with Queens College for being the citadel of knowledge and wellspring of wisdom. As we all look to a prosperous future, let us gear up for the challenges ahead, let us relish our moments of triumph and with zeal and determination and look up to better years ahead where our “girls” of today will become captains of nations and industries tomorrow as I stated. I thank you once again for this invitation and wish Queen’s College every success. Peter A. Okebukola, OFR July 9, 2016 5