Obe in Lowel (1981) stated in a seminar on education
and national building held in Adig Ababa under the supply of the human
resources development division of the united nations a regional meeting on the
role of women in national development brought together women in public and
voluntary services for health, nutrition, education, welfare industry and
government with a view to the promotion of active participation of women in
civic political and economic life. This has become increasingly so long with
the struggle to secure the recognition of women as human beings having equal
rights with men. In recent decades when.
UNESCO has been responsible for one
meeting after another in various parts for the elimination of discrimination
against women in exhumation, the emphasis has been on education as rather than
as a national building. The fourth common wealth education conference in
Nigeria February/ march (1988) devoted economic and social development and
specially included women education. Edith in Lowel(1981) stated that Research
has shown that in most societies women fulfill the basic roles of the early
chore and custody of the children, the maintenance of homes, the feeding of the
family and according the prevailing customs, the preservation of its health.
Feeding the family may include not only the preparation and cooking of food but
also growing it so that in some societies women have been the cultivator of and
agriculturist.
In simple societies women were usually regarded as occupying an
inferior position to men and were often in a state of servility or indeed
slavery but there could be little doubt about the extent of their contribution
to their societies in terms of working and production by the then existing
standards. Okonja(1986) pointed out that women were seen as deprived group
incapable of given focus and direction to cultural development of society, economically
dependent on men with few legal rights and no political responsibility since
the women are not opportuned to gain sound education. Most of them therefore
take to early marriage. Because of the position of women as conservator and
guidance of the family partly beaus they traveled less and come less in contact
with new ideas partly because of social pressure on them, they were made to
remain to engage in the type of work that men found inconveniencing and
uncomfortable to do. Women had fewer opportunities to adjust to and prodit by
the new development.
This shows dearly how fare the education of women and
girls has bagged behind their men counterpart. The deficiency in girls
education are woolly due to back of provision of girls schools by authorities.
Also reluctance of some parents to permit education for their daughters on the
same scale as their sons. Men who occupy public office find that their
uneducated wives are unable to undertake the social duties and occupy the
position expected of the wives of such men. The level of living in their houses
and the up bringing of their children does not correspond to their new idea and
their wives are not able to respond to these requirements. Women are not
available for the more skill jobs which in more developed countries are
customarily undertaking by women and the politic.
The most obvious is the need for
more girls to have access to primary education for the prejudice to their doing
so being overcome. The newly introduced free and compulsory education will also
be another remedy to cub the ill situation of the girls education. This free
and compulsory education will also help favourably if government can by more
emphasis on the girls to make sure that every girl will be involved by
equipping them with instructional materials like books teaching aid and other
essential things they may need for their education.
Another thing hindering women
education is the attitude of girls towards the education. It is unfortunate and
an eye save seeing some girls abusing the very education that come to liberate
and unchain them from the churches and antagonisms of men and the society. Some
girls refuse to read while they have every opportunity given tot hem by their
parents or guidance to read. Some girls refuse to further education and went
into marriage even dough that their parents are willing to train them. Some
refuse to study in government schools or institution but hope to pass their
examination through the offer of their body in sexual exchange. Some acquire
the knowledge and engage in either private or public prostitution thereby
abusing the sex education they got from school. Some live with true student in
the university or in the other higher institution of learning to enable them to
their business. Not all the girls who parade in the campus are students.
Women potentials contribute once
towards the societies may be summarized under the following home making
professional work and public life. As a home maker a woman can by knowledge,
skill and energy chance the level of living in her own home. She can improve
the nutritional content of the family needs by a better understanding of
deities. She can add to the comfort and amities of her house, she can improve
family healthy by better hygiene and child care. She can make cloths, grew
better and more varied crops in her garden or plot. As an educated mother she
can understand and contribute to quality of schooling which her children receive.
In all these of course she needs the help and co-operation of her husband who
has equal responsibility with her for the well being of the family.
Grant (1991) stated that: there is
civic contribution to be made by women. In some developing countries women have
made a particularly notable contributions to public life. One has only to think
of India, Ceylon and Israel which have had women prime ministers and other
countries which have women ambassadors, women members of legislatures and some
paramount chiefs. Ozid, Peter and Canhan (1991) stated that the second
misconception is that Islam is opposed to the education of women. This has not
been the case. Women are kept into pandas, they are locked indoors and never
allowed to be seen. The conditioned neither to come out nor participate in
anything in the society hence Islamic doctrine forbid such activities. Respect
for womanhood is greatly cherished by Islam and was stressed by the prophet
himself.
Equality stressed is the same
doctrine that a women’s need for wisdom and enlightment is as greatly as man’s it is true that there
is still in some Muslim communities of Nigeria a widespread reluctance to
educate woman and reason for this is to be found in social arranges of the
Moslem communities and particularly to seclusion of women. The liberalization
of these conservative attitude regarding the position of women in the society
poses a formidable problem to education of woman. Talor (1994) noted that the
concept of how through the countries as directed by social political and ethnic
environment and attitudes of different societies relegates and lower status
usually to women and often portray women as an inferior species created and
properly for man’s use.
In this century more than ever
before women by their academic performance and achievement and lately by their
political agitation are affecting a change in the attitude of society as a
whole to the rights and the status of woman. A community social group or
individual sustains itself through continuous self-renewal and that renewal
takes place by mans of the educational growth of the immature member of the
group.
Dowey, (1976) stated that: Education
is a fostering, a nurturing a cultivating process. All of this words mean that
it implies attention to the conditions of easy growth including nearing,
rousing, bringing upwards which express the difference in the level which
education aims to cover.
Education is the harbinger of
cultural changes. Sociologists are in agreement that no culture is steady since
no culture is so isolated in today’s world as to avoid interaction with others
education is a machine of this interaction. Through the process of education
there is a reshuffling of traditional views and life styles, belief system and
people’s general out look or life. Through this way, the society survived along
worth while values in all aspect of life including the marriage institution. In
many cases the women had us court of appeal as observed by Ekuwen (1990).
Indeed now as formally, feminists trace their changing perception of their own
position in societal to their experience in the civic right movements. As they
participated in efforts to eliminate discrimination on against women
educationally or took part in student movement for greater control over
educational institutions, they become sensitive also to injustice against women
as a group. There are many factors which came together to produce the women’s
movement that began in the 1960s. one underlying factors has been the dramatic
increase Wilkins (1996) asserts that the emancipation of women and the increase
in effective contraceptive techniques provided parents with both the motive for
limiting the size of their families and with the means to do it. In these
endeavourers women have been able to justify their claim for higher status and recognition
as individuals with minds of their own who are capable of sharing fully in the
responsible intuitive of citizenship recalled Wilkins (1986). Some of women organization
has worked primarily for changes in education the how and the work place to
create more equality of opportunity for women. One spokes women says for
example “it is significant that the general level and style of higher education
for women is close to that of renaissance, humanism than to the skills of
midtiventies century scientific and technological society”. Remarked Robert,
(1976). While modern patriarchies have fairly recently opened all education
level to women, such allegations ignore or blow over the very real changes in
the education of women, which has occurred during the past century.
Leslie, (1986) pointed out that
women’s role have changed greatly in recent years more women expect combing
marriage with full participation in the world of work. Such women are likely to
have mother who look after their families while they enjoy their work. The need
for women education. The birth of women’s liberation movement may be viewed as
an effort to overcome cultural big, cultural is the situation in which social
change big behind possibilities opened by technological change. Stwart (1998)
stated that: Ninety percent of the women in the liberation movement are highly
educated. Nowadays the women often bring money into the house and has real
alternative of rearing elsewhere if the man’s attitude is more than she can
stomach. The complexities of economic problems of the family are even such that
man will encourage his women to have alternative earning. This has transformed
the authority structure in the family and makes unilateral decisions seem an
indignity within the frame work of marriage. In a given society change
continues to occurred with increase rapidity with their attendant challenges,
demands and complexities changes are ingredients to development and therefore
are necessary phenomena. In order to change the condition of life we must see
the change through the eyes of women Delbor, (1993) stated that “women should
be seen as change. They are bound to teach their children what they need to
know in order to cope with changes that surround them as such like teachers in
the school they are change agents. Modern women perform a lot of functions
which demand a lot from them. To meet up with these demand the women held some
help with education. Modern educational plans and programes must be designed to
train women’s mind as well as man’s Okenwa (1996) pointed out that: “Education
is an instrument for the role achievement. We have seen that modern African
women has complex roles to play in addition to her sex role.
In order to meet up with these role
expectations, they have to be prepared to it, their mind has to be trained
along with that of the men. To meet up with the modern role expectations, the
women need to have alternative changes for the family and to be able to earn
reasonably. The woman need to be educated so as to be able to secure a good job
in order to provide reasonable alternative earnings for the family. A woman has
to compare with her mate counterpart. This means that she has to be equally
educated as her male counterparts despite her limitations and handicaps. Even
though women cannot be classified amongst the physically handicapped persons in
the society yet there are handicaps which attend the female sex particularly if
and when they aspire to improve the themselves, their education or their
careers. Their cherished traditional normative roles in the family as mothers
and home makers unless especially organized can constitute a handicap (1993). Okenwa (1996), pointed out that “the argument
that if a women yet highly educated and gets well paid job she would likely
claim equality and even become dominating and insubordinate towards her husband
does not hold water no words!! Marriage may be stable and the family
economically solvent but the incident of delinquency could be highly due to
defective home management. To cope up with the complex management of the modern
home a women need to be helped by given her proper education.
Educated and working mothers and
wives with stable marriage are valuable ingredients in the good home. In our
own society experience has shown that children from educated homes generally maintain
high standards academically and morally at least up to West African certificate
level. From the investigation and interview carried out, it is interesting to
observe that right in our society less educated self employed successful and
less successful men go in for well educated girls for marriages. The
complexities of our society and life uncertainty has compelled men to look for
girls who are educated for marriage. The aspiration of any girl particularly in
our society is to be happily and comfortably married and beget her own
children. For that aspiration to materialize, education has to play major role.
Even if she foils in her aspiration education will quip her with necessary
tools to take care of herself and live a respect able life in the society.
Summary
The importance of women education
cannot be over stressed because of their expected roles in the political,
religious, social and economic well being of the area in question. In view of
the numerous roles and expectations from women, it cannot in any way pay us if
women will still be treat as second class citizen in these days of
enlightenment. An average Ezza women should strike to attain a high academic
standard through the help and support of both local and state governments by
providing necessary facilities to encourage opportunities for women to show
greater interest in their educational pursuit.
Education being the bed rock for
woman’s increase participation in national development should be given serious
consideration by all and sundry so as to sensitize women on their social and
political role in the society. An educated woman is not only considered in her
action but is always articulated and human in her dealings with people
irrespective of class and social status. In an old adage which says that “if
you train a man you have trained a person, but if you train a woman you have
trained a nation”. The implication of this that;
i.
An educated woman
will be more understanding and will be able to mix
up very well socially.
ii.
Education usually
equips women better for their challenging roles as mothers.
iii.
Education women
don’t only contribute politically, but also socially, economically and
religiously towards social development.
In fact, social intellectual,
religious physical and moral orientation of girls cannot be over stressed based
on the fact that it helps them to live up to expectation in the society.