Educating the Girl-Child for social development in Nigeria: Implications for gender equality

Importance of Girl-Child education has become a frontline issue in many discourses held globally in recent times. The premium placed on the Girl-Child’s education is a result of several awareness/enlightenment campaigns on the need for the Girl-Child to assume her rightful place in society. The illiteracy of the Girl-Child has chain effects on the family; which is the primary agent of socialization and the society in general. For social development to be rightly positioned in Nigeria and to result in the overall development of the nation, the Girl-Child must become an active player in the society. The paper concludes that the Girl-Child having been denied education due to a lot of reasons surrounding her sex must be given educational opportunities like her male counterparts to enable her fulfill her potentials as a member of the Nigerian society in line with the Child Right’s Act of 2003 and recommends amongst others that early marriages and other cultural practices which denies the Girl-Child her right to education should be eradicated for optimum growth of the female child through education.