Sokoto, Nigeria – Every time her curious seven-year-old baby returned residence from faculty with homework, 28-year-old Habiba Abubakar knew it was time to take him to her neighbour, whom the kid known as “aunt”, regardless that they weren’t associated by blood, who had been his saviour each time he needed to face in entrance of his class and obtain a standing ovation.
However that modified in 2021, when Abubakar enrolled herself within the Girls Centre for Persevering with Schooling (WCCE) in Sokoto State, northwest Nigeria.
“I’ve at all times felt ashamed when Muhammad informed me that they’ve been given one other project,” she informed Al Jazeera.
This frustration, coupled together with her enthusiasm for studying English, pushed her to return to the classroom 13 years after she left.
Now, the mom of 4 stated she helps all the kids with their assignments.
The interruption in Abibaker’s research is just not unusual throughout northern Nigeria, particularly in rural communities, the place ladies usually tend to drop out of college as a result of cultural practices, similar to early marriage, or poverty, which forces dad and mom to make gender-biased selections by enrolling male kids over females.
UNICEF reported that greater than half of the women within the area will not be attending faculty.
Jennifer Agbaji, a social accountability skilled and the chief director at Basileia Weak Individuals Rights Initiative (BVPRI), a Nigerian nonprofit devoted to advancing the rights of ladies, ladies, and different weak populations by training and management growth, seen the initiative as a optimistic and vital intervention.
Nonetheless, she stated second-chance training shouldn’t be restricted to classroom-based studying alone.
“If entry to training relies upon solely on bodily attendance, many ladies who face mobility, childcare, financial, well being, or safety challenges should be excluded.”
How the system works
WCCE, commissioned by the then-military governor of Sokoto State, Navy Captain Abdul Rasheed Adisa Raji, was based in 1997 to offer grownup training and vocational expertise to girls within the state.
Since then, Nuraddeen Ladan Dogon Daji, a physics trainer, informed Al Jazeera that the centre has skilled many college students, a few of whom now practise professions, similar to instructing and nursing, serving to to deal with the nation’s scarcity of expert professionals.
In contrast to different public faculties, the place pupils spend six years, the centre designed a three-year curriculum for its major part, from grownup one to 3.
Within the secondary sections, college students spend three years every within the junior and senior ranges.
Of their ultimate years, additionally they sit for the necessary Junior Leaving College Certificates of Schooling (JLSCE) and Senior College Certificates of Schooling (SSCE) examinations.
To assist these college students realise their goals, the centre additionally affords free training, benefitting from the state authorities’s effort to cut back the variety of out-of-school kids.
This has helped college students like Abubakar, who, following her divorce, relied closely on her father’s help to remain at school.
“We used to pay 5,000 naira ($3.5) per time period, however had been later informed to cease as a result of the state authorities has given us an opportunity to check without cost,” Abubakar informed Al Jazeera from her residence within the Kofar Atiku neighbourhood.
However free tuition doesn’t remove all prices. College students nonetheless must pay for transport, books, and different day by day bills.
The challenges
Based on Agbaji, past poverty and early marriage, there are a number of structural obstacles, together with restrictive gender norms that prioritise home duties over training.
She stated many ladies lose confidence after years away from formal training, and in some communities, training remains to be seen as an funding for boys somewhat than a lifelong proper for girls.
In her opinion, these norms usually mix to make re-entry into training tough, even when alternatives exist. In her journey to turning into a nurse, Fatima Attahir, who left faculty after major faculty 12 years in the past, discovered it vital to return to the classroom and begin afresh.
To help herself whereas learning, she helps together with her household’s buying and selling actions when she is just not at school.
She stated that though a few of her associates already noticed the choice as time-consuming, she is just not glad with the system’s period.
“I want the first part was additionally as much as six years,” she stated.
“As a result of to develop into a nurse, I must have a stable background within the core topics.” A number of the college students Al Jazeera spoke to stated their biggest problem is juggling tutorial actions with family duties.
Earlier than her divorce, Abubakar stated she would get up sooner than ordinary to arrange breakfast, clear the home, and get herself and her kids prepared for varsity.
“Once I lastly set my foot at school, I used to be already drained, and because the lectures went on, I might begin slumbering as a result of I hadn’t had sufficient sleep.” She stated the stress grew to become worse when her youngest baby regularly fell ailing, typically forcing her to go away class earlier than lectures ended.
After her divorce, transport prices grew to become one other impediment. “Since I used to be not married, my dad and mom had been those paying for the transport fares, however once they couldn’t, I might not go to highschool as a result of I couldn’t afford it myself,” she stated.
Later, her father gave her 10,000 naira to begin making and promoting native snacks and small chops.
The small enterprise now helps her cowl transport prices and different school-related bills. Abubakar nonetheless credit the neighbour who used to assist her son with homework earlier than she returned to highschool.
When transport prices grew to become tough to afford after her divorce, her dad and mom stepped in once they might, whereas her father later offered the capital that helped her begin a small enterprise and proceed her research.
Her expertise is just not distinctive.
One other pupil, Hafsat Aliyu, stated she leaves her two-year-old baby together with her in-laws each time she attends courses to keep away from disrupting classes.
Her husband pays for books and different occasional faculty wants, whereas she sells native pastries throughout break time on the centre to earn cash for day by day transport and private bills.
Throughout examination intervals, she research late into the evening after finishing family chores and placing her kids to mattress.
“My husband does his greatest, however I believed it was time for me to get a supply of revenue, too,” she stated.
“Now, I pay for my transport and some different day by day wants.”
Nonetheless, the physics trainer, Dogon Daji, stated that in his seven years of instructing on the centre, a recurring problem amongst college students is the tempo of studying.
“I’ve taught younger folks, and the extent of their understanding is sort of totally different,” he stated.
However he added that there are nonetheless excellent college students amongst them; one lately received this 12 months’s Usmanu Danfodio Week, an annual quiz competitors organised for secondary faculty college students within the state.
Alternatively, the vocational part of the centre, which was designed to equip college students with sensible expertise similar to tailoring and soap-making, now affords solely tailoring.
College students are required to offer instruments, similar to scissors, together with these whose pursuits might lie in different trades.
The best way ahead
Agbaji acknowledged that for Nigeria to bridge the gender disparity in training, the nation should undertake a lifelong studying framework that recognises training as a steady proper and alternative.
![A classroom session at the Women Centre for Continuing Education in northern Nigeria. [Abdulaziz Bagwai /Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/1000872131-1-1780347183.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C578&quality=80)
This requires elevated funding in grownup training, digital and distant studying platforms, community-based training, and versatile pathways for girls who missed formal education, as a result of the long-term penalties are vital.
She added that many ladies pursuing second-chance training proceed to steadiness childcare, family duties, and income-generating actions, usually counting on household and group help networks to stay at school.
“Instructional exclusion perpetuates poverty, limits financial alternatives, will increase vulnerability to abuse and exploitation, and restricts girls’s participation in governance and public service. It additionally impacts future generations as a result of kids of educated moms are typically extra prone to enrol in and full faculty,” Agbaji clarified.
