Initiatives adopted to combat girl child stereotype in

education: parent perspective

Oyelami Benjamin Oyediran
National Mathematics Centre, Abuja

Keynote paper presented at 2017 Graduation and Prize giving ceremony at the Royal
School Kuje, Abuja, Nigeria

Protocols

Let me use this golden opportunity to express my profound gratitude to Engr. Olu
Mustapha the Chairman of the Management Board of Royal School Kuje, and Mrs B.F.
Mustapha the Proprietor of the school. Thank you for selecting me as the guest speaker at
the most memorable occasion. I am also grateful to the Principal, Vice Principal, Staff and
Students of this great school. I appreciate and recognise the Parents and guardian of the
Students in this school where royalty and moral excellence are being impacted on
students.

You have bestowed on me great honour for inviting me as a speaker in this graduation,
speech and prize giving day. I pray that God will honour you all and your graduates will
be great accomplished Scientists, Engineers, Legal luminaries, great Administrators,
seasoned Entrepreneurs and great decisions makers in the world in Jesus name. For
Parents and guardians you will live long to ripe the fruit of your investments on these
children and they would not die at prime age but live to see the goodness of the Lord and
fulfilled their destinies in Jesus name. As for staff, God will bless your children too and
your labour of love on this school and these children will not go unrewarded in Jesus
name.

1. Introduction

Across many territories over the world Girl Child Education is not fully embraced, yet
women have contributed substantial to cultural development of human beings as far as
history is concern. There are many quotations about women and Girl Child Education.
Chinua Achebe, a great man of letters and of blessed memory once said ‘‘proverbs are oil
in which words are eaten’’ I will quote few as follows:

‘‘God and a good wife are the best things a man can have in his life’’ anomalous
‘‘A woman brought you into the world so you have no right to disrespect one’’ by 2pac
‘‘When you educate a man you educate an individual when you educate a woman you educate a
whole family’’ by Johnetta Cole
I will end the citation of quotations with the one from a great woman, Abigail Adams
often being quoted in the Education cycle as far as learning evolution is concern:

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‘‘Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to
with diligence’’

2. Girl Child Stereotyping in our society

Stereotype, by Oxford Advanced Learning Dictionary is: A fixed idea or image that many
people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is not true in reality.

Stereotyping is concerned with social and cultural understanding of men and women due
to different physical, biological, sexual and social functions. In many societies worldwide
there is the general belief that girls are of weak sex and boys are more intelligent than
girls. Hence, courses like mathematics, physics and engineering courses are exclusively
reserved for boy; whereas courses considered to be of less rigour should be for girls such
courses are biological courses, economics, psychology, nursing, education, home
economics, hotel and catering management and secretarial studies.

It is surprising to note that, in eastern bloc which countries like Russia, Bulgaria and
Poland belong; physical science courses like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and
Engineering are for men whereas Medicine and Biological Science are for ladies.

Stereotyping in African society has almost become norm or tradition which must be
jettison out. We will consider series of example great ladies in science and humanity who
defiled misconception or stereotype of girl child education. These scientists have excelled
in courses presumably meant for boys.

Some less educated parent believe that a girl child belong to caring company and should
be married out to be taking care of her their husband and children. Moreover, a gird child
should be prepared for marriage to avoid problem of getting husband when they become
sophisticated and highly educated.

Let me pulse a little bit and ask the question: why are parent encouraging their daughters
not to study courses that are presumably 'boy courses’? and why parent espouse their
daughters at earlier age in conformity with what society deemed acceptable to their
cultural beliefs. This girl child stereotype must change in our society.

Many research results in education have established that girls are as good as boys,
therefore, there shouldn't be segregation on the type of course a girl can study at higher
institution and the type of task they can do. I will support the research finding by
considering case study of seven great ladies who have excelled in courses presumably
meant for men.

It is interesting to note that in the village set-up climbing palm tree is not the work/hubby
of a lady. Sweeping ground and cooking food are not the duty of a boy and washing car
for parent is not the responsibility of a girl. Let me ask the question: what become of a

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family whose children are all girls? Who will be washing the car for the father? If the
children are all boys who will be sweeping ground and helping the mother in the kitchen?
It is certain that all children must be trained on all domestic activities in the house. In the
same vein, parent should encourage girls to study courses that society reserved for boys
and vice visa.

In the 21st Century most lucrative jobs are in financial mathematics, telecommunication,
industrial robotics, nano-technology etc. These jobs need applications of high level
mathematics, computer science and engineering skills. In this part of world ladies are not
in these lucrative jobs because of their educational backgrounds are not from
mathematical sciences field of study.

Many Institutes, learned societies and Associations have introduced strategies to counter
the stereotype in girl child education. I will mention in particular the National
Mathematical Centre Abuja which introduced mathematics completion for female
secondary schools students and the overall winner crown the Nigeria Mathematics Queen.
The African Mathematical Union has introduced Mathematics Olympiad for female high
school students and the overall winner is crown as Africa Queen of Mathematics. The
Association of Women Science has been giving scholarship to female students to pursue
postgraduate degrees in Science.

3. Contribution great women to Science

In the history of Science, we read about the erudite female scholar in Mathematics
Marin Mersenne, a French Minim friar, who studied prime numbers which were later
named after her in the early 17th century. a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is
one less than a power of two. That is, it is a prime number that can be written in the
form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n. Today we live in the era of digital technology with
handsets and computers encoded using algorithms from the number theory like prime
numbers.

Furthermore, another great Polish female Physicist and Chemist who won Nobel Prize
twice was Marie Skiodowske Curie (1867-1934). She pioneered research on radioactivity
and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903 and Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911
for isolation of pure radium. Maria Mayer (1906-1972) a German-American Physicist got
Nobel Prize for suggesting the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. Barbara
McClintock discovered genetic transposition while Patricia Bath the African-African
made a medical discovery that was patent.

4. Contribution great women to humanity field of study

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In history women have contributed substantially to the development of human
civilization. These women couldn't have achieved anything without atom of being
educated and support of their parent/guardian. Example were: Frances Jane van
Alstyne (née Crosby; March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), more commonly known
as Fanny Crosby, was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer, a blind
lady who was a great public speaker and a gospel singer who composed over 8000
hymns, and gospel songs and 1000 secular poems. Some of Crosby best-known songs
include "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour", "Blessed Assurance", "Jesus Is Tenderly
Calling You Home", "Praise Him, Praise Him", "Rescue the Perishing", and "To God Be
the Glory".

Furthermore, another spectacular woman of substance and integrity is Harriet

Tubman otherwise called ‘A woman called Moses’, a freed slave who revolutionised
South America and part of Canada. She fought for independence of black African slaves.
The fit which was made possible through courage and education she acquired from her
white slave master.

In Nigeria, we had great women like Fumilayo Ransome- Kuti (1900-1978), who was a
teacher, political campaigner, women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat of Nigeria.
Also worthy to mention is Margaret Ekpo (1914–2006) who was a Nigerian women's
rights activist and social mobilizer who was a pioneering female politician in the
country's First Republic and a leading member of a class of traditional Nigerian women
activists. Fumilayo and Margaret were labour and anti-colonial activists who helped to
fight for Nigeria people’s rights from the British colonial lords.

5. Parent contribution to reduce stereotype in girl child education

Parent can contribute to reduce stereotype in girl child education as follows:
1. Give equal opportunity to all children both boys and girls to acquire qualitative
education.
2. Educate your daughter to know that no subject is exclusively reserved for boys.
.Girls should be encouraged to take Science subject including Further
Mathematics.
3. Identify the talent of girl child and use your parental influence to developing it.
4. Encourage and support the girl child to further study to higher institution.
5. Ensure that peer group influence do not impact negatively on the development of
their education.
6. Guild against early pregnancy.

Conclusion
The Nigeria girl child has potential like those in developed nations but the parent
must influence the realization of the potential in spite of stereotype in the educational
development of the child. There should be parent-child interaction and reinforcement
for desire behaviour that will lead to successful learning outcome. Girls should be

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 encouraged to take Science subjects including Further Mathematics. Finally,
encourage and support the girl child to further study to higher institution.

Thank you and God bless you all