Trekking for education: How 8-year-old Fatima is braving the odds for education

MUHAMMAD SABIU, reports that the number of out-of-school children, especially girl-child in the Northern part of the country is very high, just as an eight-year-old girl is braving all the odds in spite of insecurity and negative attitude of her immediate community to acquire education.

RECENT statistics on out-of-school children obtained by the Arewalive put the global figure for out-of-school children as 121 million. The report went further to state that 65 million of these 121 million children are girls, while over 80 percent of these 65 million girls live in Sub Saharan Africa.

The report by United Nations Children and Educational Fund (UNICEF) disclosed further that 40 per cent of Nigerian children aged between six and11 in the northern part of the country do not attend any primary school. The northern part of the country also records the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for the girl child.

“Despite a significant increase in net enrolment rates in recent years, it is estimated that there are still 10 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, most of them girls,” the report declared.

Furthermore, according to a National Bureau of Statistics data, the North-East, North-West, and North-Central states rank lowest among states in the country where illiteracy is very high. The data shows that Yobe State has only 7.23 per cent literacy level, the lowest in the entire country.

This poor record by Yobe is followed by Zamfara (19.16 per cent); Katsina (10.36 per cent); Sokoto (15.01); Bauchi (19.26); Kebbi (20.51); and Niger (22.88) respectively. Only Taraba is an exception with 72 per cent literacy rate.

In Zamfara State, it was gathered that stakeholders are currently battling hard to ensure that cultural barriers, religious beliefs, including poverty which are the major obstacles to enrolment of the girl child in schools, no longer prevent parents from enrolling their female children in school.

Findings gathered that most of the parents in Zamfara State are still stigmatised in their communities for enrolling their girl child in school.  The traditional belief that girls should not receive western education but should rather be married off still pervades some communities in the state.  A father of six female children who pleaded for anonymity remarked that “In our community we do not encourage girl child education because we believe that a woman’s place is in the house.”

Another parent, Mallam Yusuf Idris, also noted that western education for the girl child is still being viewed in many communities in the Northern part of the country as inconsequential which would lead to nowhere. He added that most parents still feel that female children should only acquire Quranic education.

Confirming the prevalence of the traditional belief in the state, a former Executive Secretary of Zamfara State Female Education Board, Hajiya Luba Ammani, in an interview,  recalled that when her father enrolled her in school, her peers, including neighbours in her villages labelled and regarded her as an outcast.

“Nobody wanted to associate with me. But my father insisted that I must go to school to acquire western education,” she declared

However, in spite of this lukewarm attitude of parents to girl child education, Zamfara State has proved in recent years to be ahead of most of the other states in Northern Nigeria. According to Arewa Live investigation, Zamfara, in recent times  has the highest enrolment figure for girls in primary and secondary school in the North-West, and the third highest in both North-West and North-East. It is the only state in both regions to have more girls than boys in secondary school in the last two years. The number of girls who enrolled in schools and completed their education up to West African Secondary School Certificate level has also increased by 40 per cent in the last three years according to recent statistics

These statistics are by no means accidental, but as a result of deliberate moves by successive governments as well as the strategic policies of the current administration in Zamfara State led by the Governor Bello Matawalle. It was against this background that the story of a Zamfara school pupil, Fatima, became relevant in the development of girl child education in the state.

Fatima aged eight years was enrolled in one of the primary schools in Tsafe by her father because there is no primary school in her own village of Unguwar Tofa.  According to a resident of Unguwar Tofa, who did not want to be identified, «everyday, little Fatima usually treks for about two kilometres to attend school in Tsafe,» he told Arewalive Bu the fascinating story about the little girl, according to the resident, is that she never misses classes because she just loves to attend school.

Fatima leaves home everyday as early as 7 a.m., trekking along the narrow path to Tsafe, headquarters of Tsafe Local Government of Zamfara State in spite of the security challenges around the entire area.

“She has become a well-known face in the village, because for quite some time now, she has remained the only girl pupil that goes to school. She is not bothered even when others are mocking her and calling her names.

“When her story got to a blogger, he decided to come and monitor her. He took her pictures while trekking to school one early morning and posted the pictures on Facebook.