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THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILD’S RIGHTS ACT AND GIRL CHILD EDUCATION IN SENIOR
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
The study
examined the impact of girl-child rights on education in missionary secondary
schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. The descriptive research design was used in
order to assess the opinions of the respondents using the questionnaire and the
sampling technique. A total of 300 (Three Hundred) respondents (made up of 150
males and 150 females) were selected and used in this study as the sample of
the study which represented the entire population of the study. Five research
questions were raised in the study and were analyzed together with the bio-data
of the respondents using the simple percentage frequency counts, while two null
hypotheses were formulated and tested using both the Pearson's Product Moment
Correlation Coefficient and the independent t-test statistical tools at 0.05
level of significance. At the end of the data analyses, the following results
emerged: There will be no significant relationship between child’s rights act
and girl-child education in Lagos State, Nigeria and that there will be no
significant gender difference in the education of the Girl-Child due to the
Child’s Rights Act in Lagos State, Nigeria. With the above results, it is
summarized that there is a positive relationship between Child’s Rights Act and
Girl-Child Education in Lagos State, Nigeria. Based on the above results, it
became imperative to recommend that: Nigerian girl-child should be sensitized
about their rights. Many of them do not know their Fundamental Human Right such
as rights to education, right that could allow them to challenge and reject all
conditions that seek to make them inferior, subjugate them, oppress and deny
them equal access to policy and decision-making positions.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
Primary
education started in Nigeria in the 1840s with the advent of the missionaries
and the traditional system of governance. The traditional rulers and chiefs who
had the direct contact with the colonialists were very reluctant to send their
children and wards to the early schools established because they were not sure
of the motive of the British. Instead, the traditional rulers and chiefs sent
children of slaves and others who were' serving them as house-helps to these
schools. It was after these; slaves became literate and were employed by the
missionaries as clerks and interpreters that it dawned on the traditional
rulers that it could after all be beneficial to send their children to school
(Adeleke, 1997).
According to
Ayodele (2000), the traditional education in Nigeria is such that the
girl-child is made to understudy her mother while the boys are made to also
understudy their fathers in their chosen professions. The expectation
therefore, was that the culture of the people never encouraged the girl-child
to do more than help out in cooking food and doing other domestic chores. Over
time therefore, everybody imbibed the culture and the girl-child education
suffered tremendously. Informal education was what the culture requires to
train and prepare both men and women for survival. What is known as formal
education was introduced to Nigeria with the advent of British rule and the
coming of Christian Missionaries to Nigeria.
According to
Awolowo (1981), education is that process of physical and mental culture
whereby a man's personality is developed to the fullest. To him, an educated
man is one whose personality is fully developed, he never feels inferior to
anyone, no matter the colour, stature or strength of such a person or
individual, he or she is self-reliant, and will resist any form of
embarrassment until the last breath in him is exhausted. Fafunwa (1979: 26),
defines education as 'the aggregate of all the processes by which a child or
adult develops the abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour which are
of positive value to the society in which he or she lives, that is to say, it
is a process of disseminating knowledge either to ensure social control or to
guarantee rational direction of the society or both.
Over the
years, the girl-child has been grossly neglected (Oleribe 2002). Girl-child are
left out in decision-making, utilized at homes without due remunerations, kept
as home keeper and never allowed to earn a living for herself used by men as
wife, by children as mother, by other women as house-girl and by men as
bed-mate (Fishel, 1998; Oleribe, 2002; Sarwar and Sheikh, 1995). She has never
ever been given a chance to make her own choices.
According to
Ebigbo and Abaga (1990), in Nigeria, the rate of child abuse and child hawking
has assumed a worrisome and alarming proportion. He further noted that in
Ibadan, Ondo and Ogun metropolis, it is a daily occurrence to see children,
especially the girl-children below 14 years, hawking wares and other products
along the roadsides thereby depriving them going to school.
Christian
Missionary Society (CMS) started both primary and secondary education in
Nigeria. With this, even the girls that were opportuned to go to school got
pregnant because of lack of self-discipline. They were forced to get married
and this led them to bid good-bye to their educational careers. But the ugly
trend and reluctance to send the girl-child to school because of cultural
factors, which hither-to affected the growth of the girl-child education was
checked as the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) activities started in Nigeria in
1948. According to Oyedeji (2001), "The RCM opened girl's convent school
in Abeokuta in 1886, St Agnes College Yaba Lagos for the training of women
teachers in 1933. Soon, there were schools for girls, both primary and secondary
in some other parts of southern Nigeria".
The
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is no doubt the most widely
accepted framework for action with respect to children. It is the most widely
ratified human rights instrument. The CRC guides international efforts to
identify the continual life conditions that put very young children at risk and
pre-empt their healthy and optimum growth and development/education. The
Convention can be used to actively promote the quality of care through policies
and practices that young children need and are entitled to as part of their
basic human rights (Angeles-Bautista, 2001). But twelve years after the
ratification of the Convention and eleven years after the World Summit for
Children, the Childhood Care Development and Education first presented at the
OMEP Nigeria, 2001 National Conference, held at the University of Ibadan. The
programme continues to face challenges. It is the duty of all those responsible
for the care, development and education of young children to continue to remind
governments and state parties of their obligations towards them (Bellamy,
2001).
Nigeria has
ratified several human rights instruments including the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its Optional Protocol on individual
communications, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the International Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its
Optional Protocol, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Nigerian child protection policy is rooted in the Child Rights Act, which
President Olusegun Obasanjo signed into law in 2003 (UNICEF Nigeria, 2007).
This defines all persons under the age of 18 years as children, outlining
specific protections and prohibitions necessary to meet the mandate of providing
all care necessary for child survival, well-being, education and development.
The Act has been passed on a state level by 24 out of 36 Nigerian states
(Defence for Children International, 2010). It covered child trafficking, child
labour and child abuse, at the highest levels. A plethora of other policies and
programmes, at national and international levels supplement this framework and
provide tools for implementation.
Education is
one of the fundamental rights of individuals. Article 26 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General
Assembly in December, 1949 stipulated that:
• Everyone has the right to education. This
shall be free at least in the elementary and primary stages.
• Elementary education shall be compulsory
while technical and professional education shall be made generally available.
• Higher education shall be equally
accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• Parents have a prior right to choose the
kind of education that shall be given to their children (Nwangwu, 1976).
Since the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, the
General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted numerous treaties,
declarations and conventions concentrated on human rights including the right
to education. The General Assembly refers most items relating to human rights
to its Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural
matters (Anynwu, 1990). The human rights of children are fully articulated in
one treaty: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
offering the highest standard of protection and assistance for children under
any international instrument. The approach of the Convention is holistic, which
means that the rights are indivisible and interrelated, and that all articles
are equally important. The CRC defines a "child" as everyone less
than 18 years of age "unless under the law-applicable to the child,
majority is attained earlier."
The World
Summit for Children also held in 1990 re-emphasized that all children should
have access to basic education by the year 2000 as well as increasing female
literacy. Following the World Convention on Education for the Female Child
(WCEFC), the Dakar World Education Forum (WEF) was held where new sets of
education goals were stipulated to be attained by the year 2015. The goals
include, amongst others, ensuring that all children, especially girls, in
difficult circumstances and from ethnic minorities have access and complete
free and compulsory primary education of good quality; eliminating gender
disparities in pre-tertiary education by 2005, and migrating to gender parity
in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls full and equal access to
basic education of good quality. Similarly, the Millennium Development Goals 2
and 3 reiterated the achievement of universal primary education and the
promotion of gender parity and women empowerment respectively. Based on the
developments, the Universal Basic Education Act (2004) and the Childs Rights
Act (2003) documented that Nigeria government shall provide free, compulsory
and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary
school age.
Access to
education for girls is also affirmed in the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), agreed in 2000 following the Millennium Summit and intended to be
achieved by 2015. MDG2 is to "Achieve universal primary education"
and MDG3 is to "Promote gender equality and empower women". The
girl-child education has been a burning and continuous issue in the developing
countries of which Nigeria is one.
In spite of
the fact that improvement and ordering of access to education has been a major
goal ofAfricanGovernment since in the 1960s, the history of educational
provision to date is a catalogue of enduring inequality between boys and girls
and men and women. Again, though educational opportunities have indeed greatly
expanded for all children in Nigeria, there is still an under-representation of
females in schools, showing a disparity in educational access and achievement
widened to the growing disadvantages of females (Gender Training Manual, 1999).
Nigeria is a
signatory to many international conventions aimed at bringing the gender
imbalance in education, yet the girl-child lags conspicuously behind. The 1984
Universal Development of Human rights states that "every person has a
right to education". Article seven (7) of (UNICEF, 1995) and the right of
the child also states "every child (male or female) is entitled to receive
free and compulsory basic education and equal opportunity for higher education
based on individual ability."( Ayande, 1990).
In 1990, the
world Conferences on Education for All (EFA) held in Jomtien, Thailand,
declared among others, that every person shall be able to benefit from
educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning. Despite the
concerted efforts at national and international levels to bring about gender
equality between boys and girls in many areas and particularly in education, in
equality still persist worldwide. (Mamma in Eze, 2011), captures the fate of
the girl child, "it is a well known fact that many parents in Africa give
preferential treatment to boys especially in matters concerning education. It
is really sad that up till now in some societies, girls are still made to live
in their shadows, denied education and other rights, and socially exploited. What
is more disturbing, is that even the passage of the child rights act into law
in 2003 by Law makers in Nigeria on the issue of the girl-child education has
not been fully addressed (Ayodele, 2000).
The child
rights law seeks to facilitate the realization and protection of the rights of
all children in the country regardless of their tribe, gender, and parents'
status. There is continuing national gender disparity in basic education
enrollment, retention and completion against the girl child. -Available statistics
revealed that we have about 10 million children in Nigeria, and 60 percent are
girls who are presently not in school (Jackson and Walwana, 2009). The
girl-child education has been a burning and continues issue in the developing
countries of which Nigeria is one. The girl-child education can be compared to
a coin which has two sides. This is because in the northern part of Nigeria,
the girl-child is not encouraged to go to school, whereas in the Southern part
of the country, reverse is the case. But culturally women are confined to their
traditional roles with lots of sanctions imposed on them either by custom,
norms or religion (Onyeaku, 2001).
It has been
revealed that the girl-child education has suffered a lot in the society as
cited by Mohammed (2008). This has been the case since independence in 1960. In
the sixties, the situation was really break because out of 10 school children
that went to school beyond primary 4, only one was a girl. Missionary
activities started in certain parts of northern Nigeria before the turn of the
century. In 1860s, Baikie of Christian Missionary Society founded a settlement
at Lokoja. A school was opened the same year and instruction was given in Hausa
and Nupe languages right from the beginning. The girl-child education in
Northern states has been lagging behind all this while in terms of education
one can wonder why the situation should persist like this in respects of the
light of the clear provisions in National Policy on Education that education is
a right for every Nigerian Child, The National Policy on Education (2004) also
has as its 5th objective, the building of a "bright land full of
opportunities for all individual". Northern states in Nigeria as a whole,
there is the presence of discrimination against girl-child in the access to
basic education. The Northern region which is so much dominated by the Hausas
who have no interest in girl-child education as it was viewed exclusively for
the male child. The girl-child was not only denied formal education, but also
the Qur'anic education. The few girls that attempted school during western
education after the amalgamation in 1914 did that under duress.
The problems
of the lack of girl-child education emanates from the root of:
• The culture of the northerners
• Religion
• Poverty
• Weak father figures and ignorant mothers
who knew no better
• Early marriage and
Placement of
priority on the Boy-Child etc.
Therecent
report to the African Union on the rights and welfare of the Nigerian child
showed that about 6,000 children are in prison and detention centres across the
country. Girls make up less than 10 per cent and they mainly come into contact
with the law as a result of criminal acts committed against them such as rape,
sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Statement of
the Problem
The panacea
of poverty, family disorganization and. societal true development has suffered
several sets backs over the years due to socio-cultural and economic factors.
Till date, girls constitute the largest population of illiterate children
worldwide. Extreme poverty, mass illiteracy, large scale ignorance, high
maternal mortality and fertility rates, child wastages and lack of access to
health, education and social services may sound far and fictional to many
indigenes and visitors.
The problems
of girl-child education have been in existence since the introduction of
British rule in Nigeria. Parents were very reluctant to send their female
children to school. This was partly because the traditional system of education
often dictates that the place of the girl or woman in the society is in the
home. Many children, who should be in school, particularly girls, were involved
in unpleasant acts such as child labour, child abuse, child trafficking,
prostitution and were all deprived from Child’s Rights Act decree law
enforcement. More often than not, these children were subjected to inhuman
treatment as some suffer physical abuse, economic exploitation and denial of
opportunity to education. Most of them were under-fed and if they are fortunate
enough to be in school, they are hardly given any time to play and rest
properly.
Mohammed
(2008) opined that most girl-children are engaged in either hawking goods on the street for their
parents, and at some other times, the girl-children were engaged in early
marriages as a result of parental poverty and financial problems where some
parents cannot afford to pay school fees for their many children. In some
families, parents who have many children select the boys and educate them, thus
leaving the girl-children untrained and uneducated. Not only that, the
girl-child has suffered enough discrimination among siblings and parents, and
even the society and this has affected her education negatively. For instance,
in many African traditions and customs, the girl-child is regarded as inferior
to the boy-child, and this has made many African parents to devote more
attention in training the boy-child than the girl-child.
The above
identified problems, gave rise to the examination of the impact of child’s
Rights Act on the education of the girl-child among students in Missionary
Senior Secondary Schools in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State,
Nigeria.
Research
Questions
The
following research questions were raised in this study:
(1) What are
the cultural-factors affecting the girl-child education in Lagos State,
Nigeria?
(2) What are
the most perceived effects of lack of girl-child education by the students in
Lagos State, Nigeria?
(3) How do
students perceive the influence of child Rights Act on girl-child education in
Lagos State, Nigeria?
(4) What are
the solutions for implementing the Girl-Child’s Rights Act in Lagos State,
Nigeria?
Hypotheses
(1) There
will be no significant relationship between child’s rights act and girl-child
education in Lagos State, Nigeria.
(2) There
will be no significant gender difference in the education of the Girl-Child Due
to Child’s Rights Act in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Significance
of the Study
Students
would be able to find the results of this study very important for them to use
as a guide towards their works on the issues concerning child’s Rights Act and
Girl-Child education in Nigeria in general and Lagos State in particular,
especially students in the missionary secondary schools in the state. This is
because the issues of the education of the girl-child are very vital issues
that need to be paid attention to, due to the importance of the education of
the girl-child in any Nigerian family.
The teachers
in our secondary schools, especially in Lagos State, would be able to see the
outcomes of this study as very important because they would have correct
insights about the importance of training the girl-child in the Nigerian
families.
This study
will be beneficial to the government, especially the Ministry of Education,
because it will assist them to be in the-know concerning the important role the
education of the girl-child play in any nation of the world, particularly in
Nigeria and Lagos State.
This study
will be also be very beneficial to the society who will be in good position to
have fair knowledge of the training of the girl-child in Nigeria.
Scope of the
Study
This study
examined the relationship between Child’s Rights Act and Girl-child Education
in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study covered all the teachers and students in the
Missionary Secondary Schools in the Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos
State, Nigeria. This study was limited to access for the panacea of the Girl
Child Education, Missionary Schools in LagosState; it did not take into
consideration the other crucial issues in girl-child education like retention
and equity, enrollment, quality and achievement in school subjects. It's also
restricted to missionary schools in Lagos state only. The major reason to
conduct this research in only Lagos state was due to time and financial
constraints.
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