By Grace Udofia
Former Emir of Kano State Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has decried the incessant attack on the educational sector and has appealed to the federal government to embrace new ways of administering the sector so as to boost girl child education.
In his Independence Day message to Nigerians on Friday, Sanusi hammered on the need for government to focus on the girl child and give her sound education in order for her to be able to compete with her male counterpart beyond limitations.
According to him, what the government needs to do is reduce the distance between people and education, embrace modern technology and break language barriers to allow more people have access to quality education in the country.
He said, “What we lack at the moment is that thought process and the realization that we have been doing something in one way for so long and it has not worked and we need to do it differently.
“Unfortunately what has happened with the kidnapping and banditry, we have been set backwards for about 50 years in girl child education. People are even more afraid now to send their girls to school because of safety and security concerns.
“So we have got to think out of the box, how do you use technology to deliver education to girls near their homes, how do you give them the kind of access that children of the rich have had during COVID19. The kind of education where a girl can sit in the comfort of her fathers house and receive an education, these are the kinds of things we should think about.
“Because it is easier to take education to her than to get her parents risk bringing her out to where she can be kidnapped. How do you improve the quality of teachers, how do you have structures that encourage girl child education.
“We have states in the North where you have so many girl school, where the principal the vice principal and house masters are all male, how does a 13 or 14 year old girl discuss issues with a male housemaster. This makes them sometimes shy away from school.”
