Female teachers amounting to 58,121 in number are needed to bridge the gender parity in rural classrooms in Northern Nigeria according to The United Nations International Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF).

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The research is one of the two commissioned by UNICEF as part of the Nigeria Girls Education Project, Phase 3.

The research linked out of school children to the paucity of girl teachers in the Nigeria’s education system.

The research results affirmed that female teachers have a real positive effect on educating girls. There is serious demand for them in rural communities, according to the study.

UNICEF said a key qualitative data revealed that parents strongly prefer female teachers for their daughters because they provide safety and security for the pupils.

UNICEF consultant, Noel Ihebuzor, UNICEF Consultant said at the workshop that the Federal Government should employ more female teachers across the states of the federation in order to improve access, retention and quality learning in schools. This will also close the gap of the workforce in education since they could bring about positive behavioural changes in students’ lifestyle. This once achieved would retain more pupils in the school.

A second findings on the topic, ‘Communication for Development Assessment (CDA) in Basic Education in Nigeria,’ as presented by UNICEF C4D specialist, Ogu Enemaku, said the findings showed that sometimes the presence of female teachers in school influences parents’ decision to send their children to school or not.

According to the findings, more girls in the northern part of Nigeria, who are educationally less-privileged would get the opportunity to get educated with greater awareness on boosting teacher enrolment in schools

A UNICEF research survey as reported by PREMIUM TIMES earlier showed that the population school drop-out children in Nigeria has risen to 13.2 million from 10.5 million