“Of age – off school”: sexual maturation, girls’ education and capabilities

Abstract

Purpose Over the years, efforts to ensure equal participation of girls in school in Nigeria have been met with some setbacks, amidst significant progress in mobilising communities for gender equality and mainstreaming. The purpose of this paper is to explore a number of features associated with sexual maturation that affect girls’ non-enrolment, limited attendance, performance at school and gender inequality in primary and secondary education in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The analytical engagement with the capability approach draws out elements of inequalities and demonstrates that issues of sexual maturation do not just constitute personal health challenge for adolescent girls, but bring up wider issues of socio-cultural, community and institutional deprivation and injustice. Findings Though laudable initiatives have been in place to improve girls’ participation and attainment in education, there is a dire need for appropriate policy and actions to address the supply and demand barriers to meeting girls’ needs, including making schools more girl-friendly and safe, providing school-based health programmes, sex education and sanitation facilities, train teachers against gender-stereotype, flexible school schedules and enforce re-admission policy. But beyond school policy and environment, there is also the need to respond to opportunity costs of schooling and leverage collective capabilities. Originality/value This paper argues that cultural and socioeconomic factors surrounding sexual maturation are implicated in gender differentials in participation and performance of girls and gender inequality in education. It suggests the need for the application of collective capabilities for action towards addressing girls’ sexual maturation issues and education in the society.

Conditional cash transfer and education under neoliberalism in Nigeria: inequality, poverty and commercialisation in the school sector

“…The capability approach (CA) has been described as a framework for the evaluation and assessment of individual well-being and social arrangements, with the notion that the goal of development should be to expand people's opportunities to achieve functions such as being healthy, educated, employed and earning a living, to enjoy 'ways of being' and a larger set of activities which they have reason to value (Robeyns 2005). CA in education focuses on the capabilities of children to expand their choices and learning opportunities and on the way inequality dimensions interact with these capabilities (Ogamba 2019). In examining CCT, for instance, CA looks beyond the mere provision of incentives to encourage schooling of children from poor households to assess the availability and their freedoms to choose and operate amid various opportunity sets that will allow them to function fully to their potential in being and doing what they value.…”

“…Hence, the question is: to what extent does CCT expand the capabilities and functioning of children from poor households in their education? Addressing this question is important, as access that is not matched with quality, and the persistent inequalities between private and public schools in some sub-Saharan African countries, may deter mobility out of poverty and constitute a deprivation of desired freedom and opportunities (Unterhalter 2012;Ogamba 2019).…”