Africa is one of the continents around the world with the most emerging economies in the 21st Century. Many nations on the continent are forming allies and bilateral agreements for the survival of nations, and business partnerships for the future. Yet, the number of the “Uneducated Girl Child” is one of the major problems in different Countries in Africa.
According to the 2022 Millennium Development Goals Report; The United Nations annual report that tracks progress towards achieving the MDGs, some 98 million children in sub-Saharan Africa were out of school in 2022. Nigeria had about 6 million girls out of school and Ethiopia had more than a million. While the situation varies from country to country and between rural and urban areas, overall 66% of the out-of-school children are girls. According to UNESCO on 12 Oct 2021, There are 16.7 million girls out of schools sub Saharan Africa, 9.3 million of which will never set foot in a classroom.
Highlighted below are some reasons The Girl Child is denied access to an education…..
•Lack of funds
•Child Pregnancy
•Poor sanitation
•Violence/abuse at school
•Early/Child marriage in most African traditions.
•Diseases
•Marginalization/gender abuse and lastly, teaching practices are not gender-responsive.
According to USAID 2016 here are some of the Solutions to this plague in Africa…
•Erect schools where girls can gain access in Rural areas.
•Keep girls in the school safe.
•Ease the workload/house chores of girls at home.
•Train teachers to be gender aware.
•Provisions for sanitary pads.
•Fundraise African girls’ Education.
•Provide adequate facilities to train girls with skills.
We hope that in our little way, we all do our parts as Individuals and Civil Society Organizations to see to it that provisions are made and facilities ate put in place for more girls to have access to education.
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