Female Education through as Panacea for Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria

Abstract

Education is one of the most important means of empowering people with the knowledge, skills, and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in any developmental process. Though education is important for everyone, it is more significant for girls and women as it is an entry point to other opportunities and a means to reduce poverty. Education of the female folk helps in the education of the entire society irrespective of sex, which is a vital tool in poverty eradication. With education, girls and women are able to make giant strides in areas which are necessary for poverty alleviation such as; agriculture, health, business, politics, information acquisition and dissemination, socialization, religious affairs, and everything necessary for the wellbeing of an individual and his/her community. This paper focuses on the fact that while measures taken by successive governments such as NAPEP, SURE-P, Micro- Finance Banks have not yielded the desired result as far as poverty eradication is concerned, the very simple commitment the society needs in this direction is mass education of the female folk using technological tools such as mobile phones, computer, the internet, multimedia and hypermedia. The paper highlights areas such as development of business avenues, character training, mass education, enlightenment, good health, among others, which are needed in order to reduce or even wipe out poverty. Recommendations offered include, making quality education accessible to girls and women in every nook and corner of the country, utilizing the use of technological tools in the business of education, sensitizing parents on the role of female education, establishing more female schools, providing enabling environment necessary for utilizing technological tools in education and employing more female teachers in schools and to serve in key positions in the society.