By Gbenga Sodeinde Ado Ekiti
FIDA Ekiti State has called on stakeholders to invest in the education and skill sets of girls to set them on a path to achieve their greatest potential in their future career, and remove all the gender barriers on their paths to joining A Skilled Girl Force.
The call was made in a statement issued by FIDA Ekiti and signed Adeola Adetayo, Secretary of the Association on the day dedicated by the global community for advocacy on the empowerment and advancement of the girl child; the International Day of the Girl Child.
According to the Statement, "the Girl Child has suffered long enough all sorts of abuse. She has continued to endure horrific practices and subjection to a second fiddle-a
less human.
"She witnesses differential treatments such as son preference which often results in female infanticide – as well as child marriage and sexual
exploitation. She is often outpaced and outranked by boys in all spheres of her life. Across the world, the girl child is faced with hindrances to her education, training, and entry into the workforce.
"Despite her struggles and hard life, when given the same opportunities as boys, the girl child has proven to be just as strong as the boys. She is brave, intelligent, innovative, resilient, never succumbing and has broken through the glass ceiling. She is a human being and deserves no less.
"The key issues focused on by the International Day of the Girl Child are education, equality, child marriage, access to services regarding puberty
and sexual health and addressing issues around gender-based violence.
"To develop A Skilled Girl Force, we are calling on all stakeholders,
starting from the home - the parents, community leaders, religious bodies,
educational institutions, public and private employers, the Local, State, and National leaders, and the global community to work towards: Rapidly expanding access to inclusive education and training.
"Improve the quality and gender-responsiveness of teaching and learning to enable girls to develop foundational, transferable and job-specific skills for life and work".
Others are, to create inclusive and accessible schools, training and learning opportunities to empower girls with disabilities; change gender stereotypes, social norms, and unconscious bias to provide girls with the same learning and career opportunities as boys and increase girls’ participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning.
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