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Traditional
Leaders Tackle Female Education in Niger
By Souleymane Anza
Inter Press Service
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 NIAMEY,
Mar 24 (IPS) - Traditional chiefs in Niger have vowed to help
improve school attendance among girls and reduce the gap in
the school attendance rate with boys. |
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At
a national symposium on 'The role of traditional chieftains
in the survival, protection and development of women and children'
in the capital city Niamey on Mar. 8-9, some 200 traditional
leaders (provincial, district and village chiefs) wrestled
with issues of education and health in rural Niger.
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According
to official statistics, the overall rate of school attendance
in Niger is 32.23 percent. Only 25.3 percent of that represent
girls.
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Several
reasons, most notably socio-economic and religious ones, militate
against greater school attendance among girls in the countryside.
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In
principal, most people generally agree with the idea of schooling
for children. However, many continue to see school as a ''den
of iniquity'' for girls. Others think that the school does
not properly prepare girls for their future roles as mother
and wife.
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The
second objection some parents have is that attending school
will interfere with girls marrying at the appropriate age.
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A
large majority of Niger's rural communities marry their girls
off at a very young age, usually 12 or 13.
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The
traditional chiefs, who act as sort of auxiliaries to administrative
officials, plan to develop various strategies which will persuade
their followers to send their daughters to school.
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They
will explain that the more education girls get, the easier
it will be for them later, both socially and economically.
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Another
talking point will be the fact that educated women also manage
family finances and small businesses better and can contribute
to the success of their own children in school.
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Rima
Salah, UNICEF's regional director for west and central Africa,
pleaded with the leaders to do more to guarantee the rights
of children and women in rural areas. The symposium was financed
by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
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''Only
you, the guardians of tradition, culture, and moral and religious
authority, have the means to move your communities to the
understanding that education is important, especially for
girls,'' she told the chiefs.
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Rima stated that the traditional chiefs were ''an essential
element in the movement for children's welfare''.
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In
1994, the Niger government set up the Technical Unit to Promote
Girls' Education (CTPSF).
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According
to the unit's coordinator, Mai Manga Therese, CTPSF's goal
is to ensure at least 40 percent of girls are attending school
by the end of 2000.
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Manga
honoured the traditional chiefs by attributing the unit's
success to their ongoing involvement in CTPSF activities.
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After
the symposium, a draft treaty between UNICEF and the traditional
chiefs was signed, ''laying the groundwork for a lasting and
sincere partnership,'' according to Rima.
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According
to the treaty, UNICEF will provide financial and material
aid to the traditional leaders by helping initiate and monitor
the recommendations which resulted from the symposium.
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At
the end of the symposium, the traditional chiefs recommended
that all programmes sponsored by international organisations
seeking to improve school attendance among girls be coordinated
and synchronised.
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They
also requested that educational and training centers for both
attending and non-attending girls be created, as well as shelters
for girls.
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In
his closing speech, the Niger's Minister of Defence, Sadiou
Dady Gaoh, assured both UNICEF and the traditional leaders
that the government would spare no effort in carrying out
the symposium's many recommendations.
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The
Minister said the symposium's recommendations provided new
avenues of attack against the low school attendance rate among
girls in Niger.
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This article
is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced provided
that Inter Press Service is credited. |
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