More female teachers needed in Northern Nigerian rural schools – UNICEF

A new research conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has shown that more female teachers are needed in Northern Nigerian rural schools to influence the attendance of the girl-child.

Rural schools will need to hire about an additional 58,121 female teachers across 17, 576 rural schools and additional 3, 775 female teachers across 4,225 urban schools, the research said.

The findings from the research tagged; “The Effect of Female Teachers on Girls enrollment and Retention in Northern Nigeria,” showed that aside female teachers providing higher quality of learning for their pupils, girls are likely to enroll in schools with female teachers as opposed to schools with an all-male teaching staff.

Presenting the findings in Abuja on Wednesday, the Resource person, Dr Noel Ihebuzor said parents and girls consistently spoke of their preference for female teachers over male teachers because female teachers make them feel safe and free as well as being more caring.

“Female teachers are only 20 per cent of the total teacher pool across the eight northern states included in the study. There are substantial gains from training and hiring female teachers that are foregone because of the current teacher gender composition,” he said