Lives Resumed by Education: The Second-Chance Education for Women and Girls in Nigeria

This programme is developed under the Spotlight Initiative to provide accelerated second-chance education opportunities to out-of-school girls and young children facing intersectional marginalization. Many of those targeted for the programme are either ostracized or are on the margins of society because they are either living with HIV/AIDS, or are victims of early and unintended pregnancy, child marriage, gender-based violence or are classified as rural poor. This programme gives them an opportunity to be reintegrated into mainstream formal education.

“Upholding the vision to empower vulnerable children, youth and women through education and capacity building, the Grassroots Entrepreneurship Skills Acquisition Initiative (GESA) is assigned by UNESCO to provide accelerated second-chance education for women and girls in the ‘5+1’ focus states (Adamawa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Lagos, Sokoto and Federal Capital Territory)”, explained by Cynthia Evans, the National Coordinator of GESA.

According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, in 2018 the literacy rate of females aged 15 and above in Nigeria was only 52.65%, which was about 18.6% below the literacy rate for male aged 15 and above. Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school, disproportionately affecting more girls than boys, (UNICEF, 2018). “This deprivation of education rights is severer among the women and girls who were married before their 18-year birthday. I was heartbroken and felt the necessity and urgency of GESA’s work while seeing the statistics reported by the National Demographic and Health Survey 2018 (82% of women and girls who were married before the age of 18 had no education). Thank God, the Spotlight Initiative came in timely.”