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Eight, underpinning causes of gender inequality demand urgent and critical intervention.
Multiple interventions specific to girls’ education are in place across Nigeria, especially in the
northern part. However, as independent reviews of some of the projects show, the projects
appear not to be achieving their goals and are finding it difficult to influence attitudinal change
among different stakeholders. Nigeria also needs to explore homegrown initiatives for dealing
with entrenched gender and cultural practices that underpin gender inequality in education.
While the almijiri education project and the boy child education projects are listed as key UBE
gender-related intervention projects, their implementation has been very weak. The almajiri
education has not been sustained; limited information exists on the operation of the boy child
education project in the southeast and south-south zones.
Lastly, further investigation is required to understand what works for and ways to ensure
effective provision of quality education for the poor and sustenance of IQTE and Almajiri
education in Nigeria. Over the years, the number of the almajiri has increased though reliable
information on them is lacking. Besides, the madrasahs that do not provide formal education
curriculums are not included in the education statistics and their students are often reported as
being out of school in the formal school statistics. There is need to understand the actual number
of the schools that do not offer formal curriculum. It is equally important to understand what
works in keeping children in integrated IQTE and factors that contribute to make the integrated
IQTE effective from the perspective of the teachers, students and poor households. Such
investigations are also required to understand how factors work to reinforce poverty related
issues in ways that tend to weaken the effectiveness of existing interventions and quality
education strategies.