School enrolment: Stakeholders advocates employment of more female teachers

Funmi Lawrence

In order to increase access, retention and completion of education, government and UNICEF have called for consensus among stakeholders on the need to employ more female teachers in the schools.

Prof. Abba Haladu, Executive Secretary, National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education (NMEC) made this known at the opening of a two-day dissemination workshop in Abuja on Wednesday.

The workshop focused on Research Findings conducted by UNICEF on the “Effect of Female Teachers on Girls’ Enrolment and Retention in Northern Nigeria and Communication for Development (C4D) Assessment in Basic Education.

Haladu, who was represented by Dr John Ede, Deputy Director, Planning in NMEC, said if the consensus was agreed upon, it would help close gaps in the education workforce.

According to him, the intention of the research if concluded and disseminated to stakeholders in education will impact on state policies and plans regarding employment of female teachers across the states.

” It is expected that the findings of the research and its implication to policies and plans of the states with regards to employment of female teachers will be discussed intensively.

” I therefore call on stakeholders to use the opportunity of the dissemination workshop to build a consensus on the need to employ more female teachers in our respective states as a way of closing the gaps in our workforce in education.”

Haladu commended UNICEF on the unflinching ways it had supported the non-formal education sub-sector especially in the provision of access to education for out of school children and girls in the northern Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Mrs Azuka Mekinti, UNICEF Education Specialist noted that the meeting was aimed at intimating stakeholders on the findings of the two researches conducted in 2018.

Mekinti emphasised that in the past a lot of people deliberately refused to attend schools due to lack of female teachers.

She added that the organisation focused on Girls Education Project 3(GEP3) project in northern states and three additional states in the south to include Kano, Bauchi, Niger, Sokoto, Oyo, Ebonyi and Bayelsa state.

According to her, research is key in any interventions carried out by UNICEF, through research we know what the challenges are and how to address it.

“The sole aim of the research is to find out how behavioural issues affect school attendance.

” It is also to share information from the findings and the next level of action to ensure we address the gaps that we have identified,” she noted.

Also, Dr Noel Ihebuzor, a resource person, said that the research looked at ways to address three key issues which are access, quality and accountability.

Ihebuzor noted that a number of children who were supposed to be in school were not in school in the focal states the research was conducted, hence the need to take the issue serious.

” Education quality is very poor in Nigeria which is an issue UNICEF is trying to address.

” We should not leave our problems for outsiders to come and address. You are trapped when you try to allow outsiders to come and take over the development process of your system.

“In terms of accountability, we must try to hold teachers accountable by ensuring the teachers are there always to teach.”

Ihebuzor also called for the education of women in our society as this has a way of contributing to education of all. (NAN)

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