Teen Matter Foundation in collaboration with Obìnrin Áfríkà Initiative for Research and Development (OBIRAD) organized colloquium to commemorate the World Girl Child Day last week in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
11th of October is a day on which girl child is celebrated all over the places in the world. This did not exempt its celebration among the girls in the secondary schools in Ibadan.
In her speech, the team lead of OBIRAD, Dr. Mutiat Oladejo reminded the female children of the fact that there are quite a number of school children on the streets roaming and could not afford to be in schools like them because of reason or a list of mild challenges.
Also speaking, Mrs. Lateefat Eniola, the co-convener hinted the girls present on the essence of being firm and courageous to achieve something tangible in their lives.
She advised them to appreciate themselves and build more self-esteem in order not to be carried away from the whims and caprices going around especially on social media.
The Commissioner of Education, Science And Technology, Oyo state, Barr Rahman Abiodun Abdul-Raheem, in his admonition speech, charged the young girls to be up and doing with diligence in their educational tasks in order to be among the state ambassadors in the future.
He sighted the young Odunsi, who competed with other kids across the globe in the mathematics competition.
The event which had a lot of seasoned and retired academic profiles across all educational levels took turns of opinions during a session among some erudite panellists.
From the session, it was observed that there are weakening appraisals from the parents and guardians who have girl-children at their disposal. These are dream-maiming that many girl-children have been taken away from their dream and as well, shatter their aspirations to be great in life.
Furthermore, the panelists incorporated a list of possible and workable solutions to the inherent problems that inhibit girl-children in the society.
Some of which are: “Decadence or lack of self-awareness in girl-children is another phase of issues faced by girl-children in the neighbourhood. Many girl-children are not really aware of themselves and this among the girl-children inhibits their success.
“The negativity of the digital era is unarguable. This digital era however, has exposed the girl-children to many abilities for technological transformation. This is inherent in the behaviours of the girl-children.
“Gender inequality is one other inhibitor identified by another panelist. It is quite obvious that some parents or fathers in particular tend to reduce the viabilities of the girl-children below the male-children thereby making them to be domineering over the girl-children in the society.
“Self-Determination of the girl-children has to come from the mind of the girl child who holds her aspiration highly. There is a need for this determination in the girl-child in order to be successful in life.
“The Serious Involvement of Parents: To be able to leave this form of milieu, there is a need for the parents to get involved in the exposition of the girl-children to let them see the advantage of the digital transformation.
“Girl-Children’s Innovativeness: It is highly expedient that girl-children should be taken through innovative ideas which will enable them to see the positive sides of the digital transformation. Even at this, the government should incorporate inclusion of school’s subjects’ contents in the digital space which can help girl-children build their innovative ideas.
“Government Policy should encourage girl-child leadership roles in the communities.
“There should be more and timely advocacies on the parts of bodies, NGOs and the government agencies.
“The inclusiveness of the out of school adolescents should also be given consideration as they also need to be self-aware of their nature as girl-children.”
