Henry Carr on the Girl-Child and Women Education in Southern Nigeria, 1889-1918.

Abstract

The subject, the girl-child and women education has been a crucial aspect of gender issues since the latter part of the twentieth century and has attracted much concern and attention at the global, regional, sub-regional, national and even community levels. Indeed the desire to give a positive sense of direction to the girl and to women who lack education or left school early has necessitated the formulation of favourable policies and the implementation of bold actions in this regard. However, the thrust of these actions and available literature have been to promote equal educational opportunity for boys and girls, to increase enrolment figures of girls and women in schools at all levels of education, to ensure access to education and eliminate obstacles militating against the education of the girl-child and women. Valuable as these data are, there is also the need to understand the educational ideas that shaped and influenced the development of the girl-child and women education in Nigeria. This type of data is necessary for the reconstruction of educational development and puts literature in this respect in historical perspective. It is in this context that this paper examines Henry Carr thoughts on the girl-child and women education. More remarkably, Henry Carr was an indigenous educator whose ideas developed within the Nigeria, cultural milieu rather than an emphasis on the influence of non-indigenous educators. Again, Henry Carr was among the pioneers of Nigeria's educational system from its foundation stage. A system which had a consequential factor in the social, economic and political development of Nigeria. SOPHIA: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 9 (1) 2006: pp. 38-44