Achieving The Universal Basic Education Objectives In Nigeria: The Role Of Women

This paper sets out to examine the roles of women in the achievement of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) objectives. Their roles as mothers and teachers in the educational development of the child are examined. As mothers they are the first teachers the child has and as professional teachers they are the initiators of the learning process, the facilitators of knowledge, the coordinators of the sequence of learning and the assessors of learning effectiveness. They are seen as the latent force in national development and at the lower and middle basic education; they are the hub around which the teaching and learning process revolves given their numerical strength. Considering the fact that the lower and middle basic education levels form the foundation on which the other levels of the education structure rest, it thus implies that female teachers do not only facilitate the achievement of the UBE objectives but determine the standard of secondary and tertiary education through the different roles they play. To this end recommendations such as enforcing gender equality in the society through the domestication of some of the international conventions on the rights and protection of women should be speedily implemented among others. This will enable women function optimally for the realization of the UBE objectives. (B C Ijioma, Angella Izuagba. Achieving The Universal Basic Education Objectives In Nigeria: The Role Of Women. World Rural Observations 2011;3(4):51-58). ISSN: 1944-6543 (print); ISSN: 1944-6551 (online). http://www.sciencepub.net/rural.