THE IMPACT OF GIRL-CHILD EDUCATION TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

THE IMPACT OF GIRL-CHILD EDUCATION TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0.INTRODUCTION:

This Chapter presented the background, problem statement, general objective, and specific objectives, and research questions, scope of the study and the significance of the study.

1.1. Background of the study

The girl-child is a biological female offspring from birth to 18 years of age. During this period, the young girl is totally under the care of the adult who may be parents, guardians or elder siblings. It is also a period when the girl-child is malleable, builds and develops her personality and character. She is very dependent on others on whom she models her behavior, through observation, repetition and imitation. Her physical, mental, social, spiritual and emotional developments start and progress to get to the peak at the young adult stage. (Sutherland, 2001). There is an alarming difference between the numbers of girls attending primary and secondary school. The vast majority of school-aged girls in sub-Saharan Africa are not enrolled in secondary school, because the relatively high costs of secondary education are acting as a mqjor disincentive for poorer parents. In Pakistan, the gross enrolment rate for girls in secondary education is 19 percent, In Niger, Tanzania and Chad it is only five per cent. There are exceptions to the rule, but generally in countries where girls fare poorly in primary education compared with boys, they do even worse in secondary education. Nevertheless, countries are making progress, sometimes dramatically so.

•                   In Bangladesh, equal numbers of girls and boys now enter secondary school. In 1990, there were only half as many girls as boys in secondary education.

•                   Nepal has nearly nine girls for every ten boys enrolled in primary school, compared with seven girls for every ten boys in 1990.

•                   In Kenya, over I million extra children have enrolled in primary school since the removal of school user fees in 2003.

The development of any society would be grossly lopsided if the girl child is not given quality education. Education in any normal society is accepted as an instrument to power, prestige, survival, greatness and Advancement for men and women. The United Nations General Assembly (2001) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which stipulates that everyone has the right to education which shall be free at least in elementary and primary stages. Similarly, the National Policy on Education emphasizes among other things that there will be equal opportunities for all citizens. However, Osinulu (1994) lamented that the girl child is discriminated against in terms of education and given out to marriage early thereby denying the girl-child the require competences for community development.

According to Osinulu (1994) and Akinpelu (2000) education is the process of providing information to an inexperienced person to help the individual develop physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, politically and economically.

Education is the process through which individuals are