Title: Gender parity and educational development in Nigeria: an analysis of recent trends

Authors: James S. Etim

Addresses: Department of Education, Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, NC 27110, USA

Abstract: Education is a vehicle for social change and has been linked to development. One of the goals in Education for All is the elimination of gender disparities in education by 2015. In light of EFA Goal 3, several questions were raised with regards to education in Nigeria including: 1) whether there are gender disparities in primary school enrolment; 2) whether there are gender disparities in enrolment in secondary education; 3) whether there are gender differences in terms of student performance at the end of secondary education. The primary source of data was the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics. It was found that although there was progress during the years in the study, gender disparity in favour of male students still remained. Some suggestions were made on strategies to improve the situation.

Keywords: education; empowerment; gender disparity; gender inequity; primary schools; secondary school completion rates; STEM areas; university education; Nigeria; gender parity; educational development; student performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2013.055040

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2013 Vol.4 No.2, pp.117 - 132

Received: 09 Feb 2013
Accepted: 06 Mar 2013
Published online: 10 May 2014 *

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