An Analysis of Daily Trust Newspaper in The Promotion of Girl Child Education in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Girl child education has been a problem in most developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. The problem of the Nigerian girl child is the cultural web in which she is caught which makes it impossible for her to compete with her peers in the developed world. Various studies have shown that there is a strong link between girls’ literacy rates and religious and traditional misconceptions. As Nigeria is a very religious country, many of its citizens tend to live according to the holy writings, be it the Bible or Quran. That is why many households think that girls should not receive education in the same way boys do, if they receive it at all. The same can be said for traditions. Many people still live with a very traditionally biased view on life. According to this view, a girl should grow up to be a mother and a housewife. Why would she need education for that? Out of these reasons stems another one: gender discrimination. Girls are discriminated based on their gender both in their communities and in schools. Their achievements are not considered as significant as the boys’ achievements are. Women’s history is not taught at schools. Less attention is paid to educating girls on the topics of their bodies and their health. In line with this background, this research work was conducted to determine the role of the print media (Daily Trust Newspaper) in promoting the girl child education through its publicities and to what extent. Internet based method was used to gather data which were analysed using descriptive method and simple percentage. The population of the study is 391 weekly editions (educational stories) within 12 months (September 2020-October 2021). The findings revealed that educational issues are paid the least attention to in news coverage in Daily Trust Newspaper when compared to other issues. It was recommended among others that the print media should make conscious effort to ensure a wider and consistent coverage of educational issues to sensitise policy makers, and other stakeholders on the importance of girl child education as this will ensure the provision of solutions to problems affecting girl child education, promoting national development.