My first experience of school(that I can remember) was a small public primary school, it was a government owned school. My Dad happens to be the English Teacher and the school librarian then. My class back then had walls that had almost peeled finish, the ceilings fans weren't working. About four to five of us shared wooden benches, while having our school bags squeezed in the long table lockers. Still, we tried, in all of those conditions, we learnt the national anthem, we recited the times table, learnt two-three letters word and all.
I remember going to/starting school was never about gender, both genders wore their uniform to school, we carry our bags, lunch boxes and all, we even got disciplined same way when we misbehaved. What I noticed then was that, both males and females all start and go to school together, but somewhere along the line, most of these girls often drop out, this is very common in the rural areas. We hear it's because their parents want to marry them off early, sometimes it's that the parents couldn't afford to keep the girl child in school anymore. But, they do everything in their capacity to make sure the boy child goes to school, as they are considered breadwinners.
A distant relative of mine back then, Maria(not her real name), she happens to be a very brilliant one, she was good in almost every subject. But something happened when we got to JSS2... she stopped coming to school. I asked her why, and she told me her father didn't want her to continue, that she's supposed to be helping her mum at home, in the kitchen especially, since that's where she would end up when she gets married.
I also had a friend back then, Kunle(not his real name), Kunle's dad was a taxi driver and his mum sold pepper, still they managed to send all four of their children through secondary school...two boys and two girls, they(parents) both believed in education. The funny thing is, here in Nigeria, education isn’t just about the classrooms. You learn skills....you learn real survival skills.....we learnt how to dodge those drunk bike mens, we learnt to negotiate with snack sellers so we can still have extra money to spend when it's time for short break.
Also, we learnt teamwork, or what else would you call a group of four classmates who shared just one textbook, we also learn leadership, or what would you call a member of the class who's in charge of monitoring the class while also taking good care of the class dusters and chalks. I can say there's a lot of changes now, the ratio of girls to boys in school now has improved, I want to believe we have more females in school today, just my own personal opinion, cause you hardly see a class or lecture hall that has more number of male students to female.
We can say we are growing and doing better, but even with that, there are some places where girls are still being left behind/pushed aside. To me, education was more than going to school and passing my exams, it was my ticket to grow, to aspire and to dream beyond. Going to school here in Nigeria is a bit somehow, but if you know what you are doing and are determined to keep going, you woul appreciate self for it.
All pictures are mine.
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