Senate
President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Thursday called on all tiers
of government in the country to encourage girl-child
education by through the use of special incentives.
He also said that government need to lay more emphasis on achieving qualitative education for all Nigerian children rather than
concentrating on the quantity of students enrollment alone.
Saraki
according to a statement by Chief Press Secretary, Sanni Onogu, in
Abuja, stated this during an interactive and advocacy
meeting with 70 school girls drawn from eight states and the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) who visited him as part of activities to mark
this year's International Day of the Girl Child. The states are Sokoto,
Zamfara, Bauchi, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Bayelsa,
Ebonyi and the FCT.
The
students who were led by the Girls' Education Manager of the United
Nations Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) in Nigeria, Teija
Vallandingham, also posed questions bordering on education, welfare,
safety and protection of the girl child in the country to the Senate
President during the interactive session.
On
her part, Vallandingham said the meeting of the girls with the Senate
President became necessary to reassure Nigerian girls on
the commitment of the highest level of legislature in ensuring that
they count in the agenda of Government for achieving Sustainable
Development Goals.
In
his response, Saraki assured members of the delegation as well as girls
across the country of the commitment of the National
Assembly to employ appropriate laws in breaking the disparity that
exists in terms of access to education between boys and girls.
Saraki said: "The assurance that this Senate is giving today is that
we are very committed in ensuring that we truly break that disparity in the issue of gender education in the country.
"We strongly believe that in the past when you see a child without education, it
has to be a girl. We have to move away from that. But the area that is most important is that we must spend enough resources on education.
I remember when I was Governor of Kwara State, we spent quite some amount on achieving quality education. Quality education is different
from quantitative education.
"We
need to sensitize and seek collaboration with States. Education is also
the responsibility of the State and Local Governments
and the Federal Government must work with them to ensure adequate
minimum standards across the States. I think we need to start doing that
to ensure that most states are well funded and to ensure compliance on
free education.
"I
think also in most parts of the country, we must provide incentives
because in certain parts of the country, very little is there
to encourage girl's education. We must make efforts to ensure that
whether you are coming from Zamfara, Ebonyi, or Lagos, it is the same
kind of efforts that is done to ensure equal opportunity for every
child," he said.
He added that the Senate through the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill seeks among others to make
sure that the girl child has equal opportunity with their male counterparts to get education.
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