The Girls Voices Initiative (GVI), a programme of Action Health Incorporated (AHI), has urged parents and guardians to prioritise girls’ education and wellbeing over economic benefits and household support.
The GVI Leader, Miss Ibukunoluwa Adejimi, made the call at a forum on “Advancing the Wellbeing of Out-of-School Girls in Oshodi, Lagos, on Friday.
The advocacy project was implemented by GVI, with support from Rise UP, an NGO, in Bolade/Ifesowapo Community, Oshodi Local Government Area.
Adejimi disclosed that Nigeria has 13.2 million out-of-school children, 60 per cent of which are girls.
“Major drivers are economic barriers, socio-cultural, child marriage and poverty that discourage attendance in formal education, especially for girls.
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“The key drivers of child marriage are gender inequality, poor level of education and poverty,” she said.
According to the GVI leader, her NGO conducted a focus group discussion among 40 young girls aged 13 to 24 in Bolade, Oshodi.
The discussion, she said, showed that about 15 per cent of girls dropped out of school because of the stigmatisation of repeating classes.
She identified other reasons as teenage pregnancy and poverty, saying majority of the girls have no means of livelihood after leaving school.
Adejimi said that the girls should be supported with community programmes that would increase their access to education and vocational skills.
She heaped on the importance of safe space programmes that would build girls’ self-confidence and self-reliance.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Idris Muse-Ariyoh, Chairman, Oshodi-Isolo Local Government, said that education was a lifetime achievement.
Muse-Ariyoh, represented by Mr. Mejindade Ganiu, Supervisor for Education, advised parents to always monitor their children and support them.
He pledged to facilitate the enrollment of out-of-school adolescent girls from Bolade/Ifesowapo Community into the ongoing UNDP programme in the council area.
