National Policy on Gender in Basic Education: Challenges of Implementation and Way Forward

Abstract

Nigerian government have developed many policies and programmes to improve the girl-child education in Nigeria. Among such policies and programmes is the National policy on Gender in Basic Education which was formulated in 2006. The National policy on Gender in Basic Education objectives is to “build a just society devoid of discrimination, harness the full potentials of all social groups regardless of sex or circumstance, promote the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and protect the health, social, economic and political well-being of all citizens in order to achieve equitable rapid economic growth. The National policy on Gender in Basic Education   however is faced with many implementation challenges since its formulation. This paper intends to examine the challenges facing the implementation of National policy on Gender in Basic Education in Nigeria. Primary and secondary data were used in the paper. The secondary data were sourced from the online publication and print materials. The document reviewed identified inadequate funding, inadequate professional teachers, shortage of infrastructural facilities, corruption, insecurity problems, lack of political will, policies instability, poor governance and management, poor policy formulation and poor relationship between policy designer and policy implementers as the challenges facing the implementation of National policy on Gender in Basic Education in Nigeria. To address these identified challenges, adequate funding of Gender programme, employment of more professional teachers (female), provision of more infrastructural facilities, tackling every forms of corruption, provision of adequate security and develop the political will to implement policies on girl-child education programme were recommended for the effective implementation of National policy on Gender in Basic Education in Nigeria.