Following the over 10 million out of school children recorded against Nigeria, the Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, on Wednesday reiterated the need for free, compulsory and full scale girl child education in the country.
This was contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Israel Ebije, from excerpts of a speech by Aliyu at the flagging off ceremony of pilot distribution of school uniforms to JSS 1 female students at Munya Local Government Area of the state.
Aliyu said following the over 10 million out of school children recorded against Nigeria, the need to renew efforts to reduce education deficit cannot be overemphasised, adding that girl child education should be prioritized.
According to him: “It is important to ensure that female children are well educated. When you train a man, you train an individual but when you train a woman, you train a nation.
“It is the responsibility of government at all levels to ensure provision of free education from primary to junior secondary school. Failure to comply with this has forced many school age children out of school and the girl child is most affected.”
Aliyu therefore directed the 25 local government chairmen to replicate government’s effort by flagging off their own free girl child educational materials.
He said part of the directive for local government is to ensure that they help sensitize parents and school age students, adding that despite the free education policy by the state government, girl child education enrolment in rural areas needed to be scaled up.
Aliyu, who thanked UNICEF, DFID and other development partners, said he is convinced education for girl child in the state will improve once the pilot programme is sustained.