How Lack of GRESP Affects Girls School’s Attendance in Gombe
By Najib Sani, Gombe
Gombe State is one of the states in the north with high number of girls out of schools. A lot of school-aged girls are out of schools with some engage in hawking and others in farm labour.
This is happening despite series of advocacies for girl child education and efforts to boost education by successive state governments.
Findings by DAYLIGHT REPORTERS indicated that absence of Gender Responsive Education Sector Plan (GRESP) is responsible for the low number of girls in schools in the state.
An appraisal of the state education sector plan showed that the plan used by the state from 2013 to 2022 had no gender responsive policies to promote girls enrollment, retention and completion of school.
It it found out that still, less than 50 per cent of girls in the state acquire basic education through enrolment, retention and completion of primary to junior secondary school in spite of series of advocacies and sensitisations on girl child education.
A statistics from the state ministry of education revealed that the enrolment of girls in primary schools in the state stands at 44.6 per cent and 41.5 per cent in junior secondary school.
Moreso, rather than even sustaining the number of the female students attending primary and secondary schools, the figure declines to 38.5 per cent in senior secondary schools.
An analysis of the first education sector plan in the state developed to be used from 2013 to 2022 and Strategic Education Sector Operational Plan 2013 — 2015, identified challenges in the state education to be that of overcrowded classrooms, inadequate trained teachers, infrastructural decay as a result of blown-off roofs, inaccurate data of children in and out of school, inadequate allocation and untimely releases of funds, among others which they intended to address.
But the two documents obtained and appraised by this medium had no specific gender responsive policies to encourage girls attendance in school. It also failed to identify factors impeding the enrolment of the girls in schools.
Instead, the plans proposed sensitisation of parents on the need to send their female children to schools without identifying the factors hindering them such as poverty and cultural norms and without stating clearly how they would surmount these problems.
Also, education experts and stakeholders in the state who commented on the state education plan assessed by this reporter, ascribed the development to lack of GRESP noting that the previous education plans the state had been using was not well-rounded.
A child right activist in the state and founder of a non governmental organisation known as ‘Advocacy for Children’s Right Initiative’, Barrister Martha Daniel, opined that the real factors responsible for the prevalence of out of schools girls in the state are; preference for boys to go to school and the notion that ‘girls are meant to be housewives’.
Other factors enumerated by her were; poverty pointing out that girls in some families serve as bread winners by engaging in hawking, farm labour to cater for the family thereby hindering them from attending school. She added that lack of will to support the girl child for education is another problem.
The activist said to address that, there should be gender sensitive budgeting in the state.
According to her, the state education plan should consider the empowerment of the girl child economically, incorporation of vocational training into all secondary schools, provision of enough toilet facilities for girls and sanitary pads to encourage them to be in schools.
“To tackle this, we need to empower the girl child not just educationally but providing resource materials. Some girls don’t go to school because of lack of sanitary pads. Most of our schools have very bad toilets. So, these things are some of the factors that make girls stay out of schools.
“Our girls in the north like businesses and that is why they hawk on the streets. Why don’t we incorporate vocational training into all our secondary schools? Let us teach these children medium scale enterprises so a girl can produce things at home and sell in school to her teachers and fellow students. Entrepreneurship should be introduced in schools’ curriculum since they like trading. By so doing, it will motivate them to go to schools.”
She advocated that the education plan in the state should be intentional and make budget that can tackle everything that hampers girls’ attendance in schools.
Also in an interview, the state coordinator, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA), Abubakar Abdullahi Hussain, cited systemic issues like having facilities that are not female friendly in schools as one of the factors that hinder girls’ attendance.
He added that education sector plan should include training and restraining of teachers so that they would be up to date and inculcate current knowledge in children.
The CSACEFA coordinator also called for free education to the girl child in the state from primary to secondary school in its education plan.
The Director planning and statistics of Gombe State Ministry of Education, Abdulmuminu Umar Kwami, said the former Strategic Education Sector Plan (SESP) has been reviewed by the current administration to ensure inclusivity and address gender issues and marginalised groups, assuring that it would be submitted to the ministry shortly for implementation.
He revealed that the Gombe State Ministry of Education under the guidance of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) has undertaken a review of the education plan of the state that has elaborately dealt with the identified problems that were not tackled in the former plan used for many years.
“We are very careful in gender responsiveness in this development of our sector plan. First, we considered our previous data where we have all the necessary information and now we pay attention to key areas where we have challenges.”, he stated.
Contrary to the civil society organisations that put all responsibilities on the government, the director asserted that it is not government’s responsibility to bring children to schools but their parents.
“To me, I challenge the stakeholders. You can’t say that the ministry of education will move to Deba (local government) and start tracking, bringing these children out to school. It is the responsibility of the parents to send their kids to schools.”, he said.
Also commenting on the state education plan, Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed, head of Education Management Information System (EMIS) of the state ministry of education, said the first time Gombe had education sector plan was in 2010.
He noted that the state’s previous plan failed to critically address gender issues, but the newly developed plan prioritises gender equality and parity, introducing innovative solutions to tackle these concerns.
The education specialist of UNICEF Bauchi field office which is also in charge of Gombe State, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ado, told our correspondent that they developed two documents for Gombe State; the State Education Sector Plan (SESP) and State Education Sector Operational Plan (SESOP).
According to him, the SESP is a 10-year plan while SESOP) is a three-year plan adding that the documents are aimed at achieving the SDGs goals to ensure education for all irrespective of gender.
He particularly said the newly reviewed plan addresses issues of climate change, disability inclusiveness and gender responsiveness.
It is observed that number of girls in the state do not go to schools especially during rainy seasons but troop to streets, looking for farmers to hire them for farm labour for payment of token amounts of money.
The reason behind this awful development is poverty as the girls engage in the labour to help bring money to their parents for their upkeep and to feed the family.
Call to action:
It is therefore recommended that the state should include economic empowerment of school aged girls in its education sector plan to ensure these out of schools girls come back to classes and at the same time have a source of livelihood beyond farm labour that hinders their attendance in school.
The inputs of the stakeholders earlier mentioned can also help encourage girls to be in school if captured in the state education sector plan. Some of these suggestions are introduction of entrepreneurship in the secondary school curriculum and making girl child education free from primary to senior secondary schools.
Government can also in addition to that, include in the education plan, incentives to the girls attending schools and their parents especially the less privileged ones.
This reporter also advocated the establishment of taskforce in the education sector plan that will be punishing parents that refuse to allow their girls to go to schools for whatever reasons as far as the state government does its own part by implementing policies favourable for the school girls.
Conclusively, lack of GRESP is the main impediment to girl child education in Gombe State and unless the state has comprehensive and workable gender responsive education plan, the problem will persist.
