Coalition says over 40% Nigerian women lacks formal education

From the Feminist Coalition came a revelation that over 40 per cent of Nigerian women has never received formal education.

The co-founder, Feminist Coalition, Damilola Odufuwa, who made this revelation, yesterday in Abuja, added that 5.5 million girls in the country are out of school, while dropout rates are highest at the sixth grade of primary school and higher among girls than boys.

According to Odufuwa, these statistics have worsened, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when almost 90 per cent of the world’s countries shut their schools at the height of the outbreak in a bid to slow its transmission.

She said: “Eventually, this goes on to disproportionately impact the girl child, who, unfortunately, based on gender bias, is the first to be negatively affected in situations of unrest and often the last to recover from the socio-economic repercussions.

“The Feminist Coalition believes it is every girl’s right to access quality education.

Women’s rights and safety is one of three pillars of our work and, undoubtedly, girls’ education is a space we are committed to working within, for the protection and advancement of Nigerian women.

“This is why we decided to start the Feminist Coalition Girls Education Programme. It is a yearly full scholarship and mentorship programme for brilliant young girls from low-income backgrounds in Nigeria, whose largest barrier to a quality education is financial.”

The convener disclosed that the scholarships provided by the coalition do not only include full tuition payments, but also boarding house fees, co-curricular activities, examination fees and other necessary school requirements and logistics.

“In addition to the all-inclusive scholarship, each founding member of the Feminist Coalition is assigned to a student and will provide mentorship in the form of a “Big Sister” programme. This includes weekly check-in calls with each ‘little sister’, attending open days and visiting days at the school.

In the long term, we aim to continue to sponsor this first batch of girls through the six years of their secondary school education…”