The Dearth Of Girl-Child Education In Katsina State

By

Dr. Sadiq Isah Radda[1],

Sociology Department,

Bayero University, Kano

iraddasadiq@yahoo.com

The Katsina state government has recently embarked on the policy of de-boarding the State’s Secondary Schools including female schools. This negative policy is initiated due to the usual reasons adduced by insincerely and corrupt governments: shortage of funds. Shortage of funds has become the commonly deployed reason by governments at various levels to mask their failures and to introduce unfriendly and negative policies that have no direct effects to the policy formulators and implementers. Without mincing words, it is a blatant lie to say that Katsina State lacks the resources to give our sisters and daughters boarding education. If you cannot adequately fund Secondary Schools, why the attempt to establish a State University that will require much more resources? Insincerity and misplacement of priority, I would say!!

It should be noted that overwhelming majority of the policy formulators and implementers in Katsina State are beneficiaries of free boarding education. Why they cannot reciprocate the gesture offered to them in their most hours of need is lost on me. There is no gainsaying that boarding schools system is the best for our children due to its numerous advantages. These advantages include regimentation of the students’ lives which allows for close monitoring; the system enables the student to concentrate on school activities only and it teaches them the spirit of togetherness on some matters and independence on others; the system gives them the opportunity to be academically competitive; and it allows their parents to face other challenges in their lives since their children are in safe hands.

If there is anybody deserving of boarding education in Hausa land that is predominantly Islamic, it is the girl-child. The religion and culture place a lot of expectations regarding conformity on the girl child. Any violation of norms and values by the girl-child relative to the male-child is visited with heavy sanctions. This is why parents treat their girl-children with utmost care and concern; and this is part of the reason why many parents refuse to send their girl-children to Western schools even today. However, times have changed and in recent years we saw more enrollments of girl-children into schools in Katsina State. Part of the reason for the increase in the enrollment is the boarding system (with all its benefits for our daughters and sisters) being operated in the State.  Sadly and tragically, the story about girl-child education vis-à-vis de-boarding their schools is going to be different very soon.

I envisage that my parents will find it extremely difficult to send their daughters to schools. Not only will it be financially prohibitive, it is going to divide the attention of parents. Furthermore, girls in many villages have to go to distant places (if at all they care to go) and if the parents can tolerate seeing their daughters subjected to such a daily painful exercise. I personally feel that there are numerous problems with this policy and below is my forecast, though I hope and pray to be proved absolutely wrong:

1. Many parents will withdraw their daughters from schools;

2. There will be less girl-child enrollment into our schools;

3. There will be more early marriages since girls cannot go to school;

4. The illiteracy level amongst the females will increase;

5. More sex offences against females is to be expected; and

6. The society should expect a more illiterate population since the early socialization offered by women will be of little quality.

It is my candid belief that no responsible government can allow these problems to befall its people. But the unfolding events in Katsina points to the contrary. Clearly, the government does not care about the long-term repercussions of this policy. Evidently, the people of the State are nonchalant and apathetic about happenings in the State because they have a non-listening government in place. The ‘Yar’Adua government is a failure since it has failed to offer our daughters and sisters boarding education.

More fundamentally, the government and those behind the policy do not send their children to these schools. Therefore, whether the indigenes of the State educate their daughters or not is not their problem. Their children are catered for anyway!! Moreover, they have made stupendous wealth from public treasury which enables them to educate their children in expensive schools. Currently, ‘Yar’Adua’s two daughters are receiving good education in Central London and are occupying a very expensive apartment. How moral and ethical is this?

That Katsina State lacks the funds to give our sisters and daughters boarding education is nonsensical as it is anti-common sensical. We are all aware of the huge sums of money sent to the State from the Federation Account. Also, we are aware of the financial statuses of those handling the Ministry of Education from top to bottom (the Commissioner, the Advisers on education, etc, were not as rich as they are prior to their coming to office). Now we know better!! And it is the very money required for catering for our daughters that has been diverted. The spate of corruption, favouratism and embezzlement that are endemic in ‘Yar’Adua’s government will naturally make it difficult to educate our children.  

I advice, from the very core of my heart, that this policy should be revisited and ultimately rescinded. In my view, going by the delicate status of the girl-child in our kind of society, there is no alternative to good boarding school system for them. No matter the cost, it is an investment worth undertaking. If ‘Yar-Adua can afford to mobilize, organize and efficiently fund a militia group (to pursue his nefarious political ambition and agenda), what stops him from doing same or more to our daughters and sisters? Even though misplacement of priority is the hallmark of his government, this one will be one mistake too many which should be resisted by all concerned. Women activists, girl’s rights fighters, Non-governmental Organizations, Inter-Faith Organizations, etc, here is a noble cause for you to fight!!!