The Federal Government of Nigeria has launched a National Policy on Gender in Education to ensure gender equality at all levels of education including mass literacy and adult education.
The National Policy on Gender in Education aims at eliminating gender disparities in schools education, ensuring full and equal access to quality education for all children in Nigeria irrespective of their gender, cultural or religious background.
This is Nigeria’s way of demonstrating commitment in building a nation free of discrimination irrespective of gender, physical condition, geographical location and socio-cultural and socio-economic status of parents, harnessing full potentials of all and guarantying equal access to political, social and economic wealth creation opportunities.
At the launch and dissemination of the National Policy on Gender in Education in Abuja, the Minister of State for Education Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba said the policy would help Nigeria attain SDGs 4 and 5 targets and promote issues of access, promotion and retention and transition of performance in education.
The National Policy on Gender in Education and its implementation guidelines addresses the fundamental of closing the gender gaps in Education in Nigeria. Mr. Nwajiuba said the policy would also help address the challenges of out of school children.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Mr. Sonny Echono explains that the policy is an improvement on the National Policy on Basic Education carried out by the Federal Ministry of Education, with support from the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF), Common Wealth Development Office, and the World Bank to address the emerging issues in gender education.
The National Policy on Gender in Education is a step in the right direction as it cuts across all levels of education and captures emerging and cross cutting issues. All sectors and States should ensure that it is used as a tool for the achievement of equity and the MDG 2030 Agenda.
The UNICEF Education Specialist Saadhna Panday said the policy is flexible and provides pathways to achieve skills development for girls in schools.
The National Policy on Gender in Education is a demonstration of the transformed political will to invest in girls’ education
The former Director, Gender studies, Bayero University Kano, Professor Aisha Ismail affirms that the policy also makes provisions for monetary measures for easy implementation.
“There is need to extend the mandate of the policy from basic education to the whole education sector and the Federal Ministry of Education with support from UNICEF and other partners gave the task that it should be extended.”
The policy covers all levels of education from Basic education, Post Basic to Tertiary Education including mass literacy and adult education.