An Examination of Girls’ Education Policies in Nigeria with a Focus on the North-East

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights which was adopted in 1948 provides for access to education as a fundamental human right. Over the years, literacy level which is being influenced by access to quality basic
education became an elemental metric in rating countries on human development performance. Historically and globally, boys have had lesser bottlenecks than girls in accessing formal education. Following this, several
researches started highlighting the correlation between the enrolment of girls in school and increase in life expectancy and literacy levels; gross domestic product; as well as reductions in maternal and child mortality rates in countries.

This has inspired debates on the enrolment of girls in schools as a large component of human capital investment in any country. Nigeria as a country has been rated as one of the countries with poor statistics in ensuring the education of the girl child. This has been despite several strategies that the country has employed to reverse such trend and counter gender disparity in education. These strategies encompass the 1991 establishment of the National Commission for Mass Literacy and Non-formal Education, 1994 Family Support Basic Education Programme, 1999 Universal Basic Education Policy, 2003 Strategy for the Acceleration of Girls Education in Nigeria and the 2004 Universal Basic Education Act, amongst others. Most of these policies were created in order to achieve the Education For-all goals as well as the Millennium Development Goals.

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