Girls preparing food at the fireplace is a common sight in any village setting, so it was not odd to find Ediomo Mboutidem at a makeshift kitchen in front of her parents’ home preparing an evening meal for her family.
Unlike other girls who carry out these kitchen chores after school, Ediomo, a 15- year-old girl in Utu Ikot Ekpo village of Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, had dropped out of school.
She was forced to drop out in senior secondary school to take care of her sick mother, with the promise that she would be enrolled in a tailoring school. Although Ediomo had already dropped out of school at the time of interacting with her, she was yet to begin a tailoring school.
“I stopped going to school because I needed to learn a trade. I want to learn how to sew clothes, but I will still go back to school after learning the trade,” Ediomo said optimistically.
However, Madam Blessing, Ediomo’s mother, confirmed that not just one but two of her daughters had to drop out of school due to financial burden.
Blessing, who carries the financial responsibility of her daughters’ education, stopped working due to ill health; and her daughters are bearing the brunt.
“I asked my daughters to leave school and learn a trade because I could no longer finance their education due to my ill health. I spent the money I had to treat myself, she explained.
But her son and younger sibling to Ediomo and her sister didn’t drop out of school despite her ill health.
In the case of a 17 -year-old Freegift Iboro, the traumatic loss of her mother forced the SS2 student to stop school. She believes there’s no need pursuing her dreams without a mother who would be proud of her achievements.
Stories of girls who had to abandon school due to traumatic experiences and economic hardship, among other challenges, increasingly resonate across Akwa Ibom State.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) listed factors that contribute to the high number of out-of-school children to include economic barriers, socio-cultural norms, lack of inclusive policies and practices in schools, child labour, poverty, lack of sponsorship, bereavement, among others.
Investigations revealed that these factors have increased the number of out-of-school children, especially girls in Akwa Ibom. However, data from the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Development show a yearly consistent high enrollment rate of girls than boys in primary and secondary schools in the state.
Unfortunately, the free education policy in the state, where government pays a subvention of N100 per primary school pupil and N300 per secondary school student for administrative logistics and expenses of each child, is not appealing enough to keep girls in school, whose families are struggling financially.
The principal of Community Secondary School, Ikot Ese, Etim Ekpo Local Government Area, Mr Ifiok Ibanga affirmed that factors bordering on poverty, which cause lack of uniform and exercise books, school levies, as well as distance, among other things, had dwarfed the gains of the policy.
The principal, who said that girls were dropping out of school every term, revealed that one of the students in SS2 dropped out because she became pregnant, while another one stopped attending classes due to lack of shoes.
He said occasionally, they intervened in such cases by buying shoes for such students so that they would continue attending school. They also monitor pregnant girls who drop out of school to ensure that they return back after delivery. We try to make sure that they don’t fall into the wrong hamds.
There is also the story of Uwakmfon Sunday Jacob and her two sisters who were forced into marriage before they turned 12. This is one of the consequences of the absence of a deliberate plan for the education sector in Akwa Ibom State as confirmed by the commissioner for education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet.
Uwakmfon got pregnant at age 11 immediately after her common entrance examination while living with her uncle. To solve the problem, her mother took her from her guardian and aborted the pregnancy. Not long after that, she was given out in marriage to a wood cutter who was hired to cut a tree behind her father’s company in Utu Ikot Ekpo in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area. That was how she fully went into child bearing.
Uwakmfon’s two sisters also had the same experience. “My first and third sisters got pregnant before they finished primary school,” she told our correspondent.
So, the three sisters got pregnant and became mothers without any hope of acquiring western education.
Uwakmfon said she ended up having three children before she turned 18, adding that she was constantly molested and maltreated by her husband, who sent her to work in the farm. Ironically, she did not only become the breadwinner of the family, her husband eventually kicked her out of the house.
“My sister, Nnwaeka’s case is sad because she was given out as a maid immediately after her primary school. She didn’t go to secondary school and was married off to a guy from Ika. Along the line, the guy died and she became a widow before she turned 17 years,” Uwakmfon said.
Today, Nnwaeka, Uwakmfon’s sister is not only a widow with three children—two boys and one girl—she has aged very quickly due to strenuous farm work.
According to the 2019 United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Policy Note, an education sector plan presents a critical opportunity to embed gender equality in all aspects of education. It defines Gender Responsive Education Sector Plan (GRESP) as the vehicle for identifying gender barriers within education systems and ensure that strategies and policies are in place to address them through education sector plan.
Without an education sector plan, the GRESP is not realisable as it involves integration of gender considerations into formulation of policies and the strategic implementation of education programmes and practices, including monitoring and evaluation processes.
Strategies like safe and inclusive school environments, preventive and support services for gender-related violence, gender sensitive curriculum, teacher training, second chance education, community engagement and sensitisation, sanitary facilities, policies to address gender-related barriers, recruitment of female teachers, sexual and reproductive health education, amongst others, are keys to reducing the growing non-completion rate of girls in primary and secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State.
Unfortunately, the free education policy of the Akwa Ibom State Government, which started in 2008, has not been able to effectively address the issues identified by UNICEF.
Where Akwa Ibom stands
The Akwa Ibom State Government has implemented several programmes designed at improving education at all levels, but these were executed without the Education Sector Plan (ESP), which is the only official education policy instrument in Nigeria that mainstreams girls’ education holistically. It would have helped the state government to establish performance indicators for effective implementation of girl-child education within the basic education system.
Without the plan, the lofty basic educational programmes of the government, such as building of model primary and secondary schools across the three senatorial districts in the state, may end up directionless, haphazardly executed, with little or no corresponding monitoring and evaluation processes for impact assessment.
Reacting, the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS), Ministry of Education, Mrs Ekama Etiese in the state, said plans were underway to put together an ESP, but funding would be required to accelerate the process. He said support from international agencies to produce an education plan would be a welcome development.
Changing the narrative
The GRESP theory of change indicates that the greater the extent to which factors associate in formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases of education planning, the greater the extent to which girl-child education would be achieved.
The GRESP will ensure that government prioritises the needs of girls in schools and intentionally tailor its educational programmes or any gender analysis on specific issues affecting girls in a manner that would tackle the problems the girl- child encounters in school.
Interaction with some SS2 and SS3 students in Community Secondary School, Ikot Ese, Etim Ekpo affirmed that poverty and lack of sponsorship were some reasons their classmates stayed away from school.
“Some of us need things like textbooks and school materials. Some of us cannot afford to sew our school uniform. Our parents have bought the material but there is no money to sew it. They are also responsible for our siblings and are thinking about other things, so we need assistance,” Bright Nduetim said.
Inquiries from a seamstress close to the school on how much it costs to buy the materials needed to make the school uniform for senior students put it at a minimum N5,000.
One of the teachers who pegged the student’s population at 1,000 said poverty- induced early marriage was one of the reasons many girls were dropping out of school.
“I know two girls who got pregnant last year. Also, two girls I taught in SS1 and SS2 did not come back to school; and when I made enquiries, I was told that they were married and already having children. It is unfortunate that the people here value marriage more than education,” he lamented.
Citing hunger as a problem, Mr Usen Idiong said, “If you ask the students how many of them ate before coming to school, you would learn that 80 per cent of them do not eat breakfast. That could lure them to do other things. Poverty is biting very hard; and life in the village is very costly and strenuous.”
Community involvement
Weekend Trust learnt that some communities have failed in the advocacy against school dropouts, especially girls. The village head of Ikot Ese, Chief Ukeme Ekpo, said girls getting pregnant in schools was not new, but the number of those attributing it to poverty was alarming.
He said, “Everything boils down to poverty and hunger. Farming is the main source of income here, so it is difficult. Palliatives from government have been brought to this village twice, and you would be surprised to see people you thought had food to eat lining up to collect.
“You may be angry as I used to, but the truth is that they don’t have. There is so much poverty, which is fuelled by the high cost of fuel.”
Chief Ekpo lamented that in the past, communities used to harvest palm fruits and use half of the proceeds for development, but now, villagers do not allow village heads to do that.
“People now cultivate their palm plantations and use the proceeds for themselves,” he said.
He also noted that some of the girls who dropped out of school in the community either migrated to Port Harcourt or Uyo, where they saw hope for greener pastures.
Stakeholders who spoke with our correspondent believe that to reverse the trend, communities should be intentional with girl-child education by creating a forum for engagement with traditional and religious leaders. This is in addition to the formation of women groups for girl-child education.
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