Adults took the back seat last Wednesday to listen to children from different government schools in the FCT discuss Education for Women and Girls which happened to be the theme of this year's Global Action Week.

The event, marked by the Civil Society Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) FCT and ActionAid brought to the fore issues hindering women and girls' equal access to quality education and how they could be addressed - all initiated by the children.

Government functionaries present were taken aback by the enlightenment displayed by the children who were assertive about the importance they expected to be attached to girls and women education.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), also marking the Global Action Week said 53 per cent of all children out of school are girls. In Nigeria's case, this represents 4.2 million of the 8 million out of school children. Why this is so and what can be done to solve the problem was dealt with by children from Government Secondary School (GSS) Jikwoi, GSS Jabi and GSS Tudun Wada.

It may seem the issue of granting women and girls equal access to education has been over flogged but evidence shows that when this vulnerable group is educated, child mortality is reduced, maternal health is improved, poverty and hunger decline and these are all goals under the Millennium Declaration with the 2015 deadline. In other words, educating the girl child is central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) by 2020.

In Nigeria's case, progress is slow but there is noticeable improvement in the elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education. According to the MDGs 2010 report, the ratio of girls to boys in primary education shows long-term progress. In 2008, the number of girls per 100 boys was 85.4 and there has been a gradual but steady increase from 2000 to 2008. The situation is bad in secondary education which has worsened since the baseline year of 2000. In 2000, the ratio was 81 while in 2008 it was 79.9. However, it has risen from the previous year when the ratio was 75.4.

On the whole, the progress is slow and well below the rate required to achieve the desired result. It was therefore recommended that more effort is needed to introduce measures to encourage girls to attend school.

So what reasons did the children give for girls and women not getting an education? Prisca Charles of GSS Tudun Wada listed early marriage, ignorance of human rights principles, gender preference and cultural inhibitions as barriers to girl-child education.

"Some cultures prefer the male child to go to school because they feel the female child after been educated would end up in a man's house and bear someone's name and that is not good enough for them.

"Sometimes parents that are not educated do not see the value of sending their children to school. Those are the kind of parents who give out their children to people to take care of. This is the reason why there is child abuse. For instance most homes have house helps who are mostly girls because they believe they can work hard and by the time these girls go there they do not care about their education," Prisca said.

Mustapha Ibrahim of GSS Jabi said parent's lack of exposure to the media is a major problem hindering girl-child education, including social instability, religious beliefs, non-availability of school buildings and lack of family planning.

"If parents continue to hear stories of girls been raped or kidnapped on their way to school then they would want to protect their female children whom they consider to be the weaker sex. So they allow the male children who are stronger to go to school while the girls stay at home to help with the chores.

People living in rural areas that have to work a long distance before they get to school are sometimes discouraged especially the female children.

"Some parents give birth to too many children they cannot take care of. For example a man has nine children- three girls and two boys, he would struggle to provide money to train the boys and give the female children out for marriage," Mustapha said.

Regarding religious beliefs, all the children who raised that point said lack of enlightenment on the part of some parents particularly in the northern part of the country was a major reason why girls were not allowed to enrol in school. But another student, Auwal Adam of GSS Tudun Wada surprised guests present with his analysis of the situation.

Auwal said: "Government has to sit down with religious scholars because in Islam it is not allowed for males and females to sit together. Then you have schools where boys and girls have to be seat mates. Women are also supposed to cover themselves, which is not generally encouraged by our educational system. It is needful for government to amend the law to accommodate these peculiarities."

In providing solutions to the problem, Prisca advised government to create more job opportunities for graduates to encourage younger ones to see the benefit of education, award scholarships to female children and stop all forms of discrimination against girls.

Mustapha said there was need to create channels of discussion with those at the grassroots and also establish industries in rural areas to reduce poverty and empower parents to send their children to school.

Some pupils kept harping on the need to make education free in spite of the Universal Basic Education Act which stipulates that the first nine years of schooling for every Nigerian child is free and compulsory.

The Deputy Director, Gender Division of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Stella Okafor who was at the event said government means what the policy of free education says but, "are the uniform, textbooks and stationery which the children need free? Sometimes schools need to be refurbished and the Parents Teachers Associations levy the children, which is also a problem. Then how close is the school to the hands of government? These are issues that are yet to be addressed but government is working on it."

Mrs. Okafor said: "Some Northern states are sponsoring girls to Colleges of Education to finish and serve as teachers in their communities and act as role models to encourage other girls. Niger State for example has 900 trainees. The ministry is distributing more than 10,000 computers to girls to encourage their performance in schools."

The UNICEF says a woman is more likely to get a job and earn a higher wage if she has a basic education: one percentage point increase in female education raises the average level of GDP by 0.37 percentage points. Every additional year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10 - 20 per cent and an extra year of secondary school by 15 - 25 per cent.

Getting girls into school therefore demands concerted action and political leadership. Bolder steps must be taken on all fronts to ensure the successful transition from primary to secondary education and to make sure that girls can complete a full course of learning.