In Africa, women are considered as men’s properties or pleasure objects. They are also considered as a ‘machine’ meant for producing children. These situations have resulted in unfair treatment of women especially with regards to education of the male-child than the female child. In the traditional Nigerian society; there exists the belief that women are second class citizen. Gender inequality in Nigeria is promoted by religious and communal customs. Young girls particularly in Northern Nigeria are denied the benefit of education. This has given consequences for both the individual and the society at large
THE GIRL CHILD
The girl-child is a biological female offspring from birth to eighteen (18) years of age. This is the age before one becomes young adult. This period covers the crèche, nursery or early childhood (0 – 5 years), primary (6 – 12 years) and secondary school (12 – 18 years). During this period, the young child is totally under the care of the adult who may be her parents or guardians and older siblings. It is made up of infancy, childhood, early and late adolescence stages of development. During this period, the girl-child is malleable, builds and develops her personality and character. She is very dependent on the significant others, those on whom she models her behaviour, through observation, repetition and imitation. Her physical, mental, social, spiritual and emotional developments start and progress to get to the peak at the young adult stage.
GIRL CHILD EDUCATION
Education is an important foundation to imp-rove the status of women and has also been recognised as a fundamental strategy for development. No sustainable development is possible if women remain uneducated, discriminated against and disenfranchised. Improving and widening access to education, especially basic education, is not only an objective in itself but also accelerates social and economic advancement. The evidence is out: nations that invest in girls‟ education enhance economic productivity and growth. In fact, the World Bank has stated that there is no investment more effective for achieving development goals than educating girls. The second Millennium Development Goal challenges the international community‟s commitment to ensure universal primary school completion and to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2015.

See Samples Of Undergraduate Research Topics And Latest Project Materials For Students

This goal is grounded in the recognition that access to basic education is a human right, and a vital part of individuals‟ capacity to lead lives that they value. In addition, education is a powerful instrument that enables women to access a variety of opportunities, while rendering them less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, abuse, and exploitation. Maternal mortality is one of the strongest predictors of the health of a nation and reflects the disparities between wealthy and poor nations more than any other measure of health. As an indicator of inequality, maternal mortality is considered by many to be a measure of a woman’s places in society, representing the accessibility of social sup- port, economic opportunities, and health care. In addition, the two measures of gender inequality relating to education, (female literacy rate and combined education enrolment ratio) are predictors of maternal mortality. Improving basic education, especially female education, has a powerful influence on both mortality and fertility. Indeed, the close relationship between education and demographic changes has clearly emerged in a number of recent empirical studies. A wide range of theoretical analyses from different disciplines confirms that education improves health and reduces fertility. For example, women with formal education are much more likely to use reliable family planning methods, delay marriage and childbearing, and have fewer (and healthier) babies than women with no formal education.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Rural development involves efforts that are economic and social in nature intended to encourage concepts of retention, growth, and expansion in areas outside cities, including improving quality of life for rural residents through such activity.
The rural, beyond being defined as that which is not urban, is a contested space from a definitional standpoint. Rural can be taken to mean from or of open areas – those outside cities. Rural has a common strand of meaning with country or countryside but is more frequently encountered with such nomenclature in public policy. Rural, as a word, is also endowed with other sorts of value: it is associated with agriculture and farming and people from outside city areas. Connections are made between people from rural areas and the land itself. While a contrasting relationship might be supposed between rural and urban, more properly, a continuum exists between the two as definitions of rural and agriculture are altered due to the forces of modern living and ultimately bear less resemblance to historical identities. Nevertheless, rural areas have a rich history and identity of their own, even while they share some aspects in common with urban areas. Rural development, for purposes of this entry, encompasses efforts that are economic and social in nature, intended to encourage growth or expansion in areas outside cities. This entry considers rural development from a variety of perspectives, including economic aspects, infrastructure and service considerations, sociocultural factors, and the role of stakeholders.
GIRL CHILD EDUCATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Education is the process through which individuals are made functional members of their society. It is a process through which the young acquires knowledge and realizes her potentials and uses them for self-actualization. It enables her to be useful to herself and others. It is a means of preserving, transmitting and improving the culture of the society. In every society education connotes acquisition of something good, something worthwhile. Women make up more than half of the Nigerian population, and they have been known to have contributed in many ways to the rural development and the society at large. Hence, for the girl-child to face the challenges of our time, full participation requires they have access to the benefits of formal and informal education to the same level, and of the same quality as that given to the men. That is the only way the girl-child can contribute maximally to the development of their communities and Nigeria at large.