School Girls In Nigeria Research Articles

Analysis of Human Insecurity and School Dropout among Secondary School Girls in Nigeria: A Spatio-Sectoral Approach

It is well established that human security is intricately related to access to education, food and human dignity. However, almost 8 years after the launch of the National Strategy to End Child Marriage and Twenty-five years of the introduction of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Nigeria, girl children are either denied access to education or enroll, but drop out of school. The aim of this study is to determine how human insecurity relate to girl-child school dropout in Nigeria. The study utilized data from National Bureau of Statistics and National Population Commission, Abuja. The data covered the 36 states of Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory in 2021. ArcGIS software was used to evaluate the spatial pattern of girl child school dropout, while frequencies, tables, simple percentages and Ordinary Least Square techniques were used for analyses at p<0.05. The results showed that female school attendance in lower secondary school was highest in south-east (20.3%) and lowest in North-west (16. 4.%). The geopolitical zones with the highest girl child school dropout were Northwest (56.8%), North East (50.2%) and North-central (30.6%). Meanwhile, the North West in which female school attendance was low had the highest girl child school dropout. Girls’ child school dropout was significantly explained by 64% of the variation in girl child marriage, wealth quintile of households, food insecurity and feeling of safety (R2 = 0.644425, p<0.05). Girl-child marriage was a significant factor influencing girls school dropout in Nigeria (1.216; p<0.05). There was a weak positive relationship between the proportion of girls attending lower secondary school and feeling of safety (0.047890; p>0.4045). The study concludes that girl child school dropout varies across the states of Nigeria and closely related to socioeconomic and cultural factors. These findings have implications for designing school retention strategies.
 
 Received: 29 January 2023 / Accepted: 29 February 2024 / Published: 6 March 2024

Examining barriers and facilitators of HPV vaccination in Nigeria, in the context of an innovative delivery model: a mixed-methods study

BackgroundMore than 80% of cervical cancer cases diagnosed globally are in low-income and middle-income countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, where treatment facilities are widely unavailable, it is a leading cause of...

Out of School Girls in Nigeria: Implications for National Development

Education is a right for all children. Discriminating against either the boys or the girls has serious consequences for future national development. In Nigeria, there are alarming figures showing a large percentage of boys and girls of school age not attending formal education. The focus for this paper therefore is on the girl child bearing in mind the serious implications of not education them on the society. In 2019, 10.19 million children were found to be out of school and 38% of them were girls. Some of the factors attributed to this ugly situation in Nigeria are early marriage, early pregnancy, violence at schools, funding is targeted at boys, child/domestic labour, dangerous journeys to schools, kidnapping, poor sanitation in schools, dilapidated desks/chairs, few female teachers to encourage them to attend school, religious and traditional practices etc. The implications of not addressing these factors as identified in the paper will lead to slower economic growth and reduced income, gender disparity, child mortality rates in communities will soar, she cannot be a policy maker who influences national decisions and women will be less likely to have access to social protection. Finally, recommendations like adequate funding to the education sector, provision of enabling environment, create more awareness among rural dwellers on the need to enroll, retain and encourage the girl child to complete school, Girls4Girls and SHE4HE programmes of UNICEF be sustained, provision of adequate security for all children in and out of school were proffered.

Challenging sentimental narratives of ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ in postcolonial settings: thinking with and through affective justice in comparative education

ABSTRACT This article contributes to contemporary theorising in comparative education by exploring how narratives of ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ in postcolonial settings are understood in terms of affective justice. Affective justice is introduced as a framework for understanding justice as an affective practice. Through the analysis of two examples of girls’ education in the Global South – Malala’s shooting in Pakistan and the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in Nigeria – the paper shows how these stories are circulated through sentimental narratives that fail to recognise long-standing colonial conceptualisations of education and schoolchildren. It is suggested that the notion of affective justice helps reorient understandings of education in postcolonial settings by turning educators’ attention to three domains – pedagogical practices, embodied affects, and emotional regimes. It is argued that a nuanced conceptualisation of affective justice offers insights into how educators and students can move beyond sentimental narratives to acknowledge coloniality and structural injustice.

Social action learning: applicability to comrades in adversity in Nigeria

ABSTRACTThe paper considers the learning of former abductees in Nigeria who enrolled on the New Foundation School University Preparatory (NFSUP) programme at the American University of Nigeria (AUN). The research question is: Can action learning enable a holistic evaluation of the student learning experiences of former terrorist abductees on a university preparatory programme at the AUN? The methodology employed is based on the praxeology of action learning, combined with grounded theory. Literature relating to abduction, stigmatisation and exclusion are considered along with coverage of the Boko Haram abduction of Chibok school girls in Nigeria. Findings show action learning enables student engagement, promotes confidence, encourages social and emotional learning and provides a forum for feedback from NFSUP students. This paper could also be relevant for preparatory and transformational courses in a wider community that includes refugees, internally displaced persons, child soldiers, teenage victims of trafficking and sexual grooming. Action learning probably enables a more holistic evaluation of student learning than Course Experience Questionnaires. A hybrid of both approaches should be considered by educational institutions as an assessment tool.

Social Media in an Emergency: Use of Social Media in Rescuing Abducted School Girls in Nigeria

This paper examines the abduction of the schoolgirls in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria in 2014. The paper examined how the abduction of the schoolgirls generated responses and support for the rescue of the abducted girls from people and organization from different parts of the globe. The Islamists terrorist organization operating in Borno State has attracted the attention of the world since 2009 when they started attacking government establishments and security installations northeast which later escalated to major cities in Northern Nigeria. Methodologically, the paper utilized secondary sources of data to analyze the phenomenon studied. The paper revealed that the development and innovations in information and communication technology which dismantled traditional and colonial boundaries enabled people to express support, solidarity and assist victims of conflict who resides millions of Kilometers away. This shows that Internet-based communications technology has reduced the distance of time and space that characterised traditional mass media. The campaign for the release of the schoolgirls on the social media platforms particularly Twitter and Facebook has tremendously contributed to the release of some of them. Furthermore, the girls freed from abduction have received proper attention: education and reintegration programmes which enable them to start post-abduction life. In this regard, social media has become a tool for supporting the government in moments of security challenges which the Bring Back Our Girls campaign attracted foreign and domestic assistance to Nigeria in the search of the abducted girls and the fight against the Islamist insurgents.

Practices of Menstrual Sanitary Care among Post Primary School Girls in Nigeria

<p><strong><em>Background:</em></strong><em> Adolescents at this tender age often may lack knowledge regarding standard menstrual care required to be free from the risk of genital tract infections. The study aimed to assess the menstrual sanitary care practices among adolescent girls in Nigeria to determine the unmet need. </em></p><p><strong><em>Methods:</em></strong><em> The study was a cross?sectional survey conducted among adolescent girls in four secondary schools at Port Harcourt, from 1st March to 31<sup>st</sup> August, 2018. Ethical approval was obtained from Rivers State Management School Board and State Ministry of Health.</em></p><p><em>Consent was obtained from all the participants. Data obtained were recorded on questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 18 Statistical Software and descriptive statistics was used for the analysis. </em></p><p><strong><em>Results: </em></strong><em>During the study period (from March to August, 2018), 648 adolescent secondary school girls participated in the survey. The mean age ± SD at menarche was 12.8 ± 1.31., and the mean age of the respondents was 16.1 ± 1.34 years. Sanitary pads were the most used menstrual absorbent among the adolescents 455 (70%). Other menstrual absorbent used by the adolescents were Tissue paper, cotton wool and pieces of clothes (30%). Majority washed genital area twice daily with soap and water 474 (73%) and changed used sanitary absorbents twice daily. In disposing used sanitary material, 390 (60%) wrapped it and put in the dust bins.</em></p><p><strong><em>Conclusion: </em></strong><em>There was good menstrual sanitary care among the adolescent school girls. Sanitary pads were the most used menstrual absorbent.</em></p>

Rights Remembered: A Salish Grandmother Speaks on American Indian History and the Future by Pauline R. Hillaire Gregory P. Fields

639 Reviews gists who tend to reify boundaries they draw around ancient cultural entities. Cameron argues these boundaries were porous, if they existed at all. Chapter 5 is titled “Captives, Social Boundaries , and Ethnogenesis.” It is concerned with how the presence of captives can create and maintain boundaries between social and ethnic groups and lead to the formation of new ones. Chapter 6 documents what captives contribute to the captor societies: the skills, knowledge, outlook, foodways, beliefs, and ideas they bring and how those contributions affect and alter captor societies. Chapter 7 is a stock taking. Cameron reviews and summarizes previous chapters and addresses the issue inherent in an archaeology alert to the presence of captives: how to find them in the archaeological record. At present, bioarchaeological analyses of human remains, where available, provide the best lines of evidence, for example, gender biases among cemetery populations, differential evidence of violence, and biochemical data documenting people from distant places. In the absence of such evidence, the task becomes more difficult. In some ways, this is the weakest part of the book; on the other hand, her purpose is not to offer a detailed treatise on archaeological methods but to point the field towards being alert to the potential presence of captives. She concludes by tying her discussion of ancient captive taking to modern slave raiding and human trafficking, using the example of the Boko Haram kidnapping of hundreds of school girls in Nigeria as a touch stone. In most chapters, a sophisticated, theoretically informed discussion of the chapter’s topics is grounded in one or more case studies . The prose is limpid and accessible; the thinking equally so. Cameron has thought long and hard about captives and the book’s surficial simplicity combined with intellectual depth reflects that thinking. It is useful for scholars in many fields interested in the topic, for classroom use, and the public. It is a significant contribution to the topic of captives and slaves, which remains urgent as we struggle with our own national legacy of slavery, as well human trafficking across the world and down the street. Kenneth M. Ames Portland State University RIGHTS REMEMBERED: A SALISH GRANDMOTHER SPEAKS ON AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY AND THE FUTURE by Pauline R. Hillaire edited by Gregory P. Fields University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2016, Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 486 pages. $65.00, cloth. Pauline R. Hillaire’s book Rights Remembered: A Salish Grandmother Speaks on American Indian History and the Future, is an important contribution to scholarly studies in history, anthropology, and Native American studies. Hillaire deftly manages to address Native American history and scholarship from the perspective of a Northwest Coast Native American who has spent her whole life studying the history and context of her tribe, the Lummi Nation. Hillaire’s holistic approach is a tour de force of context as she skillfully manages to weave together scholarly and federal government sources, using her personal experiences and the history of the Lummi tribe as the backdrop of the narrative. Later, Hillaire surprises with chapters on oral histories and poetry. Hillaire is a culture bearer for her people, leading dances, songs, and ceremonies. Hillaire’s book then is a rare product of a tribal culture leader and academic scholar melded in a single volume. Hillaire’s apparent wandering writing style is effective as she provides evidence from personal stories and oral accounts of the Lummi tribe from prehistoric and historic histories. This style is illustrated in her subsection “The Indian Value System” where she compares Native and non-Native perceptions of the 640 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 world. Hillaire compares her vision of the focus of the United States as that of “money, power, and use of people” with that of Native peoples of a “strong relationship of the person with land, work, exchange” (p. 65). Hillaire illustrates her point by comparing the way Iraq was attacked by the United States as a power grab by jumping to conclusions about their purported contribution to the September 11, 2001, attacks, as opposed to how “Indian Americans” would manage the problem with critical analysis and careful action. Then she follows up with a Lummi...

Family background and age at menarche among secondary schoolgirls in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Menarche signifies the onset of menstruation and is one of the milestones in women's lives. AIM: The aim of the present study was to elucidate the influence of birth order, family size, parents' level of education, and body size parameters on age at menarche among samples of Nigerian secondary schoolgirls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of age at menarche of Nigerian secondary schoolgirls (n = 600) aged 11–18 years was done. The effect of birth order, family size, and parents' educational attainment on age at menarche was analyzed. Data pertaining to menarche and family background were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 22. RESULTS: Mean age at menarche was 13.54 ± 0.90 years. Father's level of education showed statistical significant effect on the mean age at menarche (P 0.05). The result showed that firstborn girls have earlier age at menarche (12.82 ± 0.68 years) than later-born girls (14.09 ± 0.58 years, P CONCLUSION: The results suggest that birth order, family size, and parents' level of education have influence on age at menarche.

Awareness, attitude and practice of contraception among secondary school girls in Calabar, Nigeria

Adolescents are disposed to unprotected sexual activity and as a consequence, there is an increasing incidence of unwanted pregnancy among adolescent school girls in Nigeria. This study was carried out to assess the awareness, attitude and use of contraceptives among secondary school girls in Calabar, Nigeria and to determine how attitude affects its use. Data was obtained using self administered semi-structured questionnaires distributed to 480 secondary school girls out of which 450 were properly filled and returned. These were analysed using percentages and chi-square was used to test for significance. The study revealed that contraceptive awareness was high. The main sources of contraceptive information were books/magazines (37%) and friends (26%). Three hundred and thirty-three (74%) girls had a negative attitude (misconceptions) towards contraceptives, while 117 (26%) girls said contraceptives were essential/useful. Sixty-six girls (14.7%) admitted that they were currently sexually active and 42 (9.3%) of them used contraceptives. There was a statistically significant association between positive attitude/beliefs and use of contraceptives (P < 0.05). We recommend the provision of accurate contraceptive information to dispel these misconceptions and the establishment of adolescent reproductive health services which should be strictly confidential to encourage acceptability and optimum utilization.

Parents' viewpoint on reproductive health and contraceptive practice among sexually active adolescents in the Port Harcourt local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria.

The viewpoint of parents on reproductive health, specifically their attitude towards contraceptive use among sexually active adolescent daughters and general opinion on adolescent pregnancy, was examined. A sample survey of parents of pregnant adolescents in Port Harcourt was conducted. A greater proportion (79.1%) of parents did not favour the use of contraceptives by sexually active adolescents because according to their parents, contraception kills. Also, most (87.8%) parents did not usually discuss sexual matters with their adolescent girls. However, the majority (93.2%) of parents would want a sex education programme in schools in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

Attitudes toward abortion and contraception among Nigerian secondary school girls

A study of the attitudes of school girls in Benin City, Nigeria, toward abortion and contraception was carried out in three of the city's postprimary schools, using a uniform multiple-choice questionnaire. The findings show that although a significant proportion of the school girls had resorted to abortion to solve their problem of unwanted pregnancy, liberalized abortion law was only favored by a minority (approx. 30%). Also, although this indicated a high rate of sexual activity, their knowledge and practice of contraception and contraceptive methods is deficient and prejudiced. The latter findings may be responsible for the high rate of abortion among school girls in Nigeria.

Pregnancy among schoolgirls in Nigeria

A study was made of 127 cases of schoolgirls with pregnancy-related problems who were admitted into three of the major hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria, over a 10-month period. The findings suggest that schoolgirl pregnancy in Benin City is found chiefly among teenage girls during the early years of secondary school. Lack of experience in family life and knowledge about contraceptive methods, coupled with poor parental control, are the major factors that put the young adolescent at risk of unwanted pregnancy. School drop-out and complications of illegally induced abortion are the most frequent and worst consequences of schoolgirl pregnancies. The provision of formal education on family life and effective and easily accessible family planning methods for the adolescent population are suggested as a means to reduce the rate of schoolgirl pregnancy.