Contemporarily education is one of the pillars of society. At least 9 out of every 10 family wants their child to attain it's basic form to both fit in to societal standards and ensure that the opportunities that comes with it are achieved. Education is not just a tool to facilitate literacy, it causes personal growth, boosts critical thinking and character and also serves as a path towards the development of nations.
Countries around the world have placed education as a prerequisite for their citizens and Nigeria is slowly adopting this very practice. Education is actually the right of every child in Nigeria but unfortunately this rights are still being violated as the education system here is in shambles, the masses cannot afford quality education and the public schools that supposedly meant for the poor are not properly handled especially in the northern part of the country where religion still acts as a blockade to western education. The education system is divided into three stages namely: primary ( which consists of pre-school and grade school), secondary (college) and the tertiary level. Since the country obviously practices a mixed economy, there is a combination of both private and public institutions of learning. Despite its numerous challenges, education is rapidly improving from what it used to be years ago especially when it has to do with inclusivity.
My father used to tell me stories about what schools looked like when he was still a student. Back though getting an education was extremely difficult and this was not just on the basis of how expensive it was but also how most folks looked at it as a massive waste of time. People who went to school were referred to as the lazy ones who were too weak to till the soil (which is a shocker since one has to work tirelessly to raise money for tuition fee) and ran to school to escape it all. He further explained that during this period, there were fewer girls in school because they did enjoy this privilege due to being viewed as housewives. My dad went on and on about a lot of things we enjoyed currently that they didn't get a chance to back then and a lot has changed since then.
In my own experience starting from primary school, the ratio between the male and female students were quite similar and in most cases there were more girls in school than the boys meaning the ladies have also acquired equal opportunities to acquire an education into any fields of their choice without any form of restriction contrary to how it is used be years ago. Ladies can now go to whatever levels they want so long as their heart desires. There are now female PhD holders, Doctors, professors around the country and in some states, the girl child is even offered free education with financial benefits attached to it just to encourage them into going to school. Nevertheless, there are still areas in the north were the female gender are still restricted from school because of either traditions or religion but this is still being tackled at the grassroot level and some the female indigenes of these regions still attain some form of education so that has to be some sort of progress.
From my own personal point of view, I'll have to say that there are even more girls in school these days compared to boys probably because guys are starting to view education as a very slow method of making money even here at the NYSC orientation camp, it seems like the ladies are triple the number of boys. Nigeria still has a long way to go but with time I believe the desired results are achievable.
P.S All images were taken by me