women education in igboland: a gender perspective

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Umuahia as Women Teachers' College. This college was jointly owned ... Primary Education (UPE) by the then Eastern Nigeria Government. Unfortunately, this ...
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WOMEN EDUCATION IN IGBOLAND: A GENDER PERSPECTIVE A. O. 1. Gabriel Introduction There has been a growing awareness and interest in issues concerning women since the last two decades of the twentieth century. This state of affairs has stimulated research in virtually all facets of human endeavour .and at various levels - community, state, national and global. There is an avalanche of data to show that women have made significant contributions to the development of their various societies irrespective of emphasis on and the influence of the concept of gender (socially constructed and culturally variable) roles that women and men play in their daily lives in society that enshrines inequality in their relationships and is re-inforced by custom, law and specific development policies (Meena, 1992). Similarly, the trend towards a development of women studies - that is the branch of social science discipline that studies women's condition in the society - makes. it imperative that the conditions that have positively influenced and/or adversely affected the development of women education be investigated, albeit, as literature in this regard This study on women education in Igboland adopts a historical approach that spans the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods of development in Nigeria. The conditions in these periods have determined the course of women education and have made events in one period different from those of other periods. These assumptions and the responses of women to the prevailing conditions within each period would be thoroughly examined. Again, gender as an analytical tool for the discourse is useful because the feminist perspective of the study implies the recognition of the systematic discrimination against women on grounds of gender and a commitment to work towards change. How 60·

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does this study intend to bring about change in (if any is desired) the general perception and attitude of the Igbo towards women education'! Three aspects the human rights, the economic and women's self-image strengthen the rationale for this .study and will contribute to change in perception and attitude. Above all, apart from bridging literature gap in this discipline, the study contributes towards creating a "gender literate" population and consciousness. Feminism has been severally conceived and like most broad-based philosophical perspectives, it accommodates several species under its genus. Such approaches as liberal, Marxist, radical, psychoanalytic, socialist and existentialist views will be relevant in explaining the feminist perspective of women education in Igboland from the precolonial to the post-colonial period in Nigeria.

Women Education In The Pre-Colonial Period Women education refers to the type of education (knowledge in various disciplines) women were made to acquire with the aim of making them functional within the society. Their education commenced from childhood, first within the home, with parents, siblings, relations in the immediate and extended polygynous homes as teachers. As Fafunwa ( 1978: 11) wrote, there may be several "mother" in a polygamous family, and they all play a part in caring for the youngest generation. But ultimately their grandparents, uncles and aunts begin to take part in the children's education. Indeed, education is mainly informal at this stage and non-formal when the child is apprenticed to another person. There is no doubt that education at this stage is essentially a socializing process. Education of boys and girls differed in terms of areas of emphasis even though they grew up within the same environment. For example, in agricultural education, the mainstay of the Igboland economy, women,

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from childhood, were taught how to grow female crops such as okra, cassava, beans, melons, cocoyam. There were instructions on the methods of planting each crop, how to place the buds of cassava stems in their proper position, how to weed in the farms where seeds had already been planted, how to recognize the different planting and harvesting seasons, how to harvest the various crops, process and preserve them. Men from childhood learnt how to grow yam, male crop, and how to clear farmland and prepare mounds. While the boys were taught to hunt, and rear cattle (EhifEfi), the girls were taught to domesticate fowls, goats, and ducks. Vocational training was undertaken for job-orientation. Trades and crafts fall within this category. For example, women were taught weaving of baskets, cloth, and mats, hair plaiting, dressmaking, soap making, pottery making, and salt-making. For men, the following were their exclusive preserves, smithing (iron, silver, gold, copper, brass, bronze), carving (wood and bronze), sculpturing, carpentry, boat-making and wine tapping. Vocational education often involved apprenticeship, which was non-formal type of education. Here, education is organized but not strictly like the formal type, which takes place in a specific setting such as in the classroom. There is rather an in-built assessment of the trainee on a continuous basis. Even before the end of the training period, a trainee may deputize for his master or mistress. In fact, this system recognized individual differences, for each person progressed and graduated according to his or her ability. It is important to note as Fafunwa (1974:35) stated, that girls were apprenticed to mistresses while boys were apprenticed to masters, Traditional education in Igboland as in other parts of Nigeria and indeed Africa was not rigidly compartmentalized, as was the case in formal Western education. As such, physical education, character development, intellectual training, history, geography; integrated. science, citizenship education, mathematics, language, arts.rnusic, and so on, were all taught

Journal Of Gender Studies

as men and women from childhood participated In rituals, ceremonies and other activities in the society: Although it could be assumed that both boys and girls were exposedto the same activities in the curriculum content ofthese integrated disciplines, there was still some discrimination. For example, in physical exercises/training, girls were not allowed to climb. The Igbo saying that: "Nwanyi anaghi ari elu" corroborates this fact. To a extent, this restriction limited the ability of girls to engage in psychomotor activities for development and the exploration of their immediate environment. In teaching history through folk tales, stories, myths and legends, the Igbo eulogized the activities of heroes beyond the roles of women. From a liberal Feminist perspective, there should be equal educational opportunities for girls and boys as well as men and women. The personhood of women should be the focus/consideration in allowing them climb, jump and engage or participate in any activities for which they have the capacity and capabilities, Radical feminist on the other hand would explain this in-built discrimination as the effect of patriarchy, which is a system that oppresses women, a system characterized by power, dominance, hierarchy, and competition, Consequently, they posit that this system cannot be reformed but only 'ripped out root and branch (Tong 1992:3). Thus, its legal, political, social and cultural institutions especially the family, church and academia must also be dismantled because of their influence on male-female relationships. Igbo society is highly patriarchal, a system where the systematic subordination of women is entrenched in the biological inequality of the sexes. From the perspective of Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex, Tong (1992:73) explained that distinction within society is based on being a man or a woman and that this determines division of labour. For this discourse, the type and quality of education affects the labour one engages in. As indicated in the study, Firestone believes that once

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technology improves and children can be reproduced outside the women's reproductive organs, those conditions that prevented her or were. capitalized upon to debar her from some forms of education and activities would become insignificant. Women, like their male folks would have been liberated and can now engage in virtually all activities. Since Igboland is largely patrilineal, it is not surprising that men have the leverage in aspects of education that enables a person to wield much power over others. This power takes the form of male domination over women in all areas of life. In traditional Igboland pottery was seen as a feminine occupation and iron smithing a masculine vocation. Such education to the radical feminist is based on Igbo value for: patriarchy. In matrilineal Igboland such as Ohafia, Nsugbe (1974:22) also stated that there was not only a genderized division of farm labour, but of crops. Men, he noted, raised prestige crops only, particularly yams. Indeed this situation influenced women's education for existence in the Igbo society. To existentialist feminists, the inherent discriminatory form of education between men and women in traditional Igboland could be explained by the concept of the "self' and "otherness". The woman who is seen as the "other" is oppressed by virtue of this "otherness". The man is the self, the free, determining being who defines the meaning of both his existence and that of the woman, the object whose meaning is determined for her. Consequently if the woman must become a "self', a subject, she must like the man, transcend the definition, labels, and essence limiting her existence. This can be achieved in a traditional setting entrenched in existing customs, values and beliefs and a seeming belief of the idea that an individual's fate is irrevocably predetermined by his or her sex. The main guiding principle of education in traditional Igboland was functionalism and education was geared towards immediate induction into society and a preparation for adulthood, In this regard, from .: .childhood, women, under the strict supervision oftheir mothers, were

Journal Of Gender Studies

taught to care of children, prepare food, and take care of the dwelling-place. Fafunwa (1974:34) girls were also given a code of conduct in preparation for their future role as brides. The boys, he explained, received rigorous training on the farm under the instruction of their fathers. The boys remained in the service of their fathers until after they had married. It could be argued that men were excluded from domestic training because they in large scale farming more than the women did. A more plausible explanation is that Igbo society, dominated by men, has entrenched the value of domesticity and assigned that role to women. Thus, this value must be perpetuated through education and socialization process. Vogel (1983:30) reported that socialist feminists situate women's oppression within the concepts of childbearing, child raising, and housework. If women education equips them largely to hold a major responsibility for domestic life, they are then oppressed by the dictates of men who determine this social position for them. Thus' the family and family life constitute the major terrain that forments the oppression of women. The dynamics of social relationships and development must change if women are to be liberated. The expected change would be a participation of men in domesticity - child raising and housework in particular. The Marxist feminist approach to women in education is very revealing. Their theory, derived from Marx's and Engels view, as weHas assumption that a single male adult - the husband and father subordinates family members, naturally heads the family household in all societies, consequently, in this private property of every type the slavery of the members of the family, at least, is always implicit since they are made use of and exploited by the head of the family (Vogel 61). It is this exploitative tendency that lowers the status of women vis-it-vis men in this economic relationship and influences-women education. Women must be educated to fit into this exploitative-mechanism..-.-:

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Although Nwachukwu and Akpuru-Aja (1993:189) argued that production in pre-colonial was not for exchange relations but for use values, they land was the dominant mode of production, which made a major occupation. Again, on relations of production, labour was organized on individual, family and reciprocal basis. People were not differentiated by class except in the form of occupational specialization which made men primarily, farmers, blacksmiths, hunters, fishermen suchlike while women assisted men in several ways and also took to gathering and preparing foods, weaving, pottery, salt-making. Straightforward as these arguments may seem, they failed to note that Igbo women were alienated from land ownership, the dominant mode of production. Women had de jure rights to land and not de facto rights even when land was owned communally and in matrilineal societies. Despite this discrimination, women's crops were staples that fed the families all through the year. For as Nsugbe (1974: 21-22) asserted, men raised prestige crops only, particularly yams which do not usually carry the household through a one-year cycle of normal subsistence, while the women grow the real staple crops, and in addition carry the continuous work of weeding the farm over the whole agricultural year. Thus, to the Marxist feminist, women education is patterned along the lines of this division of labour and occupation by sex so that a servile relationship between the men who own land and the r women who do not own land naturally develops in all families. The issue of class would not engage oun attention much here but the existence of a caste system, slaves, rulers (even when they were elected) shows the existence of some classes of persons within pre-colonial Igboland. However, Marxist feminists, it must be stated do not only explain women oppression in social class, race and ethnicity only. Sexism, is also among their analytical tools. Marxist feminists emphasize that what makes us human is that we produce our means of subsistence specifically what we do to meet. our basic needs in productive activities such as fishing andJarmipg{ecQnomic structures),

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Women's role in the family renders them sosially subordinate to men (Tong 1992:40).

economically

From the psychoanalytic feminist perspective, the type of education women received damaged their psyche and made them exist at the periphery to be ruled by men. Derived from Sigmund Freud's analysis of human psychosexual development, psychoanalytic feminists do not see a fulfilment of the girl or that of the boy at the pre-oedipal stage. But their ego and super-ego are constructed based on cultural dictates, which now influence the types of education they receive,.who they become in society and the roles they play. These cultural dictates have great impact on their psyche, which makes for a superiority (boy) and inferiority (girl) complex that develop in male-female relationships. Invariably, the woman becomes helpless.

Education in Colonial Igboland Igboland became part of the British colonial empire on sth June 1885 when the London Gazette placed the "Niger Districts" under the "gracious protection" of her Britannic Majesty (Afigbo, 1980:410). This legal instrument did not imply actual rule, which is the administration of the public life of the people. However, before this time, Christian missions had introduced formal Western education into Igboland, which operated, simultaneously with traditional education. It was in the 1890s that Igboland felt the presence of colonial administration of some sort. Western education in Igboland would have started in the 1840s as it did in Yorubaland but .for the fact that the European merchants and missionaries in the 1841-1842 expedition up the River Niger died as a result of malaria attacks. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, an African member of the expedition, who did not die later arrived at Onitsha in 1857 under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and established a mission. Crowther.Ieft John Christopher. Taylor, pastor of an Igbo . parentage from . Sierra Leone.to head the missiortat.Onitsha .. I(e meje

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(1984:47) reported that the mission started educational work in Onitsha with night schools, which were attended mainly by slaves. The school was opened on is" November 1858 with anenrolment of16 girls. He commented that Onitsha boys were reluctant to go to school. It would appear that this school was established for girls only as Fafunwa recorded (1974:82). He corroborated this when he wrote that the boys liked to roam about in the plantations with their bows and bamboo pointed arrows in their hands to hunt for birds, rats, and lizards all day long without success, but now and then, half a dozen or more of them would rush into the school house and proudly gaze at the alphabet board and with an air of disdain, mimic the names of the letters.as pronounced by the schoolmaster and repeated by the girls, as if education were a thing only fit for females. However, the boys later attended school when they observed that those who attended could read and write. In this regard, women were willing to attend school when given the opportunity and they served as models to those who did not attend. The Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) started its activities in Igboland in Onitsha from December 1885. Under Father Lutz, educational work commenced with the establishment of a school in 1892. From here, schools spread to other parts of Igboland. Rev. (Fr.) Joseph Shanahan who succeeded Fr. Lutz spread schools to Aguleri, Igboariam, Nkwelle and Obosi. While we shall not dwell on the issue of the spreading of schools, particularly, primary schools which were co-educational, it is significant to note that the competition among the various Christian missions contributed to the proliferation of schools in the Igbo hinterland. This competition was more for evangelism and increase in the population of church members than .for the purpose of education, This leads to' an examination of the type of education provided.

Since the schools had the common aim of propagating, Christianity, Christian religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught but the girls were taught sewing domestic economy (domestic science), knitting and embroidery (Ade Ajayi 1965: 138 and 141). This was to

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domesticate them for marriage and motherhood. Education at ~he secondary level was purely the literary type. In 1903 when an Edu~atl~n Department was established for the Protectorate of Southern Nlger:a where Igboland belonged, an education code was a~so promulgated. ThIS code laid down rules for the provision of pnmary a~d ~econda1)' education in the Protectorate and decreed that instruction m certam branches of industrial work should be giv,en at .the more .advanced h When eventually aspects of industrial education were " h ki b .ck laying sc 00 Is. , introduced such as carpentry, pnntmg, s oe,ma mg,. n ginnery (cleaning and packing of cotton) a~d brick-making, only boys were taught these vocations. Girls ~ere restricted to domestic economy, . cookery, sewing, knitting, and embr01dery. Feminists would view this discrimination in cux:iculum .a~ equipping bo s for their future in the labour market and girls acqumng skills to su~port and make life comfortable for men an~ to care adequately for children This stance is not surprising because in England for exa~ple, Rooke (1972:80-81) noted that most working-class p~ents. remained . d f the need for girls to be educated, while mIddle-class unconvmce 0 . d h if parents took steps to provide some schooling for their aug te~s, even 1 only to teach certain social skills and g~aces. Indeed ,the SOCIety from where western education was introduced into Igboland, and m?st parts of en Nigeria, was hostile towards the eduation of girls. ,Educatmg won: was regarded as a plague. The Saturday Review had m 186~, accordmg k declared "A learned, or even an over -raccomphshed young . tion" An analogy to R00 e , . woman is one of the most intolerable monsters in erea Ion . ' was pa~ronizingly drawn between a plague of Egypt and a strong-~nded woman. Domesticity was by inference preferre~ to total educatIon f~r This 'ideolcgy of domesticity' was earned over to Igbolan~ 10 ~~~~rriculum of edu~ation and areas of emphasis for women educat~on. It was thus a weapon for subjugating women or for women ?ppresslon. More depriving was inequality in access to secondary edu~atI~n, There wen;ll1ore secondaIY schools for boys than there were for girls 10

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Journal Of Gender Studies

Igboland. In fact, the earliest near Igboland, was Archdeacon Crowther Memorial Girls School (ACMGS), Elelenwo, Port Harcourt, which was established by CMS in 1943. But the Methodist Mission had established Igbo Boys Institute Uzuakoli'", In 1923, the CMS founded Dennis M~moria.l Gran:,mar School, Onitsha in 1925, Christ the King College, Omtsha In 193.) by the RCM and some others. Government did not improve the si!uation eithe: for in 1929 when Government Secondary Sch~ol Umuahia was es~abhshed, none was established for girls. When ethnic groups also established secondary schools, it was for boys that the ~~ State College, Aba was founded in 1952. Similarly, attempts by the cities to develop secondary education culminated in the establishment of a boys' school by Alvan Ikoku, Aggrey Memorial College, Arochukwu. This situation :vou1d be viewed by liberal feminists as objectionable and man-made for It would produce a society dominated by men and where w?men are excluded ~ro~ ~ower. Radical feminists see state power that will emerge from discriminatory education (men who are more in number will wield power over few educated women and control state power) as part of a ubiquitous system of patriarchal power which ~lrea~y i~ reflected in the establishment of secondary schools. ' Again, mequrty In access and cultural values at this time that hindered women's p~o~pe~ts f~r secondary education would damage the psyche of women vIs~a-~lS their male counterparts and keep them in a subordinate position. This view o~ psychoanalytic fem~nists is derived from the full integration of the male mto the culture by hIS attachment to his father at the Oedipal stage and the incomplete integration of the girl who exists at the margin to be ruled by men. If the acquisition of education by women at the secondary level had been accorded a prime position, girls' secondary schools would have been established simultaneously as those of boys or all secondary schools would have been made co-educational. In fact the situation. in Britain would have partly explained this develop~ent because m 1868 the Schools Inquiry Commission, was greatly concerned about the lack the secondary education forgirls.

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Teacher training institutions were not established in time a~d when they were founded the usual trend whereby preference was given to boys confinued. Thus a_catechisLschool, which started in Iyienu in 1900; was transferred to Awka, as Awka College in 1904 for the training of male teachers. It was thirty years later that a teacher training college for women which started at Arochukwu in 1937, was later moved to Umuahia as Women Teachers' College. This college was jointly owned by the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian Missions. It was much later that S1. Monica, Ogbunike, another teachers' college for women was established. Before Independence there was no institution for tertiary education in Igboland, consequently women who desi~ed such educ~tion ~ad to go either to Yaba Higher College, Lagos, which was establIshed In 1930 or to the University College, Ibadan which was established in 1948. Mba (1982:66) reported a very low en~ol.ment of women into these tertiary education institutions even though It IS not easy to state those who were of Igbo ancestry among them. For example, the ?rst wo~an enrolled into the Yaba College in 1945, fifteen years after Its establIshment. In 1948 when the University College of Ibadan was founded there were only '4 females to 100 male students; 11 fem~les 327 m~les in 1.952; and 31 females in 1957. In fact the Inter-UmversIty Council for HIgher Education in the colonies, which visited lbadan in 1952, was concerned on the low proportion of female students and recommended the expansion of secondary schools with Higher S~hool courses and "other social changes" for the improvement of this low level of women education at the tertiary level..

:0

A significant development that woul? have in~rease? women: s access to education in the 1950s was the introduction of the Umversal free Primary Education (UPE) by the then Eastern Nigeria Government. Unfortunately, this scheme, which was introduc~d in 1~57, collapsed by 1958. By mid,.1957 government, unable to contain-the bill for free

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primary education, informed school proprietors and managers about its intention to reintroduce the "assumed local contribution" and an "enrolment fee" at the beginning of the 1958 school year. Women demonstrated in this regard. As Mba (1972: 126-127) stated, generally Igbo and Ibibio women especially in the rural areas were responsible for paying their children's school fees consequently they were very hard hit by the reintroduction of fees. The free UPE scheme had enabled many women to send their children, especially their daughters to school for the first time. Thus in a society which was strongly oriented toward education, anything which hindered access to that education was fiercely resented. Women were prepared to fight against a government, which limited their children's opportunities. The demonstrations started three weeks after the announcement of the reintroduction of fees when the impact of paying fees hit the homes. From Owerri it spread to Umuduru, Okigwe, Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Awka, Ngor Okpuala, Mbaise, Ikot Ekpene, (Akwa Ibom), Ahoada, Isiokpo, and Choba (Rivers State). Given this protest, the fees were modified and demonstrations subsided. Women's ability' to bear the burden of their children's education and their interest in education shows that without cultural non-preference, women education would have enjoyed a great boost. Similarly, finance was a factor as seen in the women's protests that hinder women's education. However, cultural factors more than finance have far reaching effects. Education introduced a new process of differentiation into the Igbo society through salaried employment, new status and prestige of the new elite, andaccess positions of responsibility. This differentiation was partly sexist in form, since there were more educated boys than girls and lack of education generally became equated with lack of prestige. Mba (1972:66) Confirmed that parents preferred to send their more favoured and privileged male children to school rather than their female children. Christian missionaries and colonial government did. not change this attitude against women education and it was.carried.intothe post-

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colonial era. However, both primary and secondary schools continued to spread irrespective of the fact that female enrolment was low.

Women Education in the Post-Colonial Era By 1960 when Nigeria attained independence, Western education was well established and both primary and secondary schools had spread to most parts of Igbo hinterland. Many women who had acquired pri~~ry, and/or secondary education in grammar schools' and teacher trairung colleges proved good wives and mothers. Those who worked mainly as teachers, nurses, and clerks (if any) assisted financially in their homes. Somehow the earlier reservations about women education at both primary and secondary levels reduced appreciabl}'. It is not. surprising that women enrolment in schools increased as did the estabhshment of more girls schools, teacher training colleges and co-educational colleges. Much as increase in enrolment and establishment of schools is of interest, the subjects taught in this period must also be discussed. ~he National Curriculum Reform Conference of 1969 was the first time Nigerians deliberated by themselves on the aims and goals of education suited for their children and their recommendation influenced the National Policy on Education (Revised 1981). For the first time in the history of education in Nigeria, the 1969 conference focused on Women Education as an important issue in Nigeria. It not only created awareness in women education but put women concern in a. prime rosition. This view was established by Briggs, W.O., the Federal 'Com~i;sioner for Education at the time. The session on women education recommended the following for remedying and promotion of women education:

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a)

Journal Of Gender Studies

remedial training through evening classes or adult education so that girls who drop out of school as a result of early marriages and other factors, can complete their education;

b)

co-educational institutions to be established at all levels;

c)

encouragement and propagation of the idea of women's education in both urban and non-urban areas (Adaralegbe 1972:220).

This stance no doubt influenced women education. Even with the establishment of University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1960 and Advanced Teachers' Training College (ATTC) now Alvan Ikoku College of Education in 1963, not many women enrolled in these institutions because it was culturally believed that a well educated woman was not as docile as a half-educated or uneducated one. Discrimination at the tertiary level recalls the female experience in Victorian Britain.

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The introduction of the Universal Free Primary'Education (UPE) scheme in 1976 a boost to education as more primary, secondary and teacher-training colleges were established. Many girls and women also enrolled in these schools. The negative attitude towards women education was gradually reducing too. Educated women attracted high bride prices; they could gain employment and assist financially in the family. It was now a status symbol to have an educated spouse, though not one who had acquired too much education. The important fact is that there was now an increased awareness for women education. When the UPE scheme collapsed, many teacher-training colleges were closed down and enrolment in the primary and secondary schools also reduced. It would appear that finance was a major hindrance. By the 1980s the campaign for women's advancement had gathered irresistible momentum with the United Nations proclamation of 1975 as the International Women's Year, the organization of the first three world conferences on women in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen, Denmark (1980) and Nairobi, Kenya in 1985, and Nigeria's accent to the implementation of the decisions of the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of 1976. Several women organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental suchas the National Council of Women Societies, Women in Nigeria, The Lioness Club, Women in Agriculture, Women Education Unit of the Federal Ministry of Education, all gave boost to women The Better Life education in terms of enlightenment campaigns. Programme for the Rural Women (BLP) in 1987 also created much awareness in this regard. Views about female education were changing . and parents, especially the educated ones, wanted their children irrespective of their sex, to be educated; women were thus favoured. Those who left school without completion benefited from Adult Education Centres that operated in the urban areas.

It was also generally believed in Igboland that since girls would usually marry into other patrilineages, any money spent on their education was an utter waste. Only a few women were sent to school for higher education before the 1967-1970 Civil War. Between 1967 and 1970, the whole of Igboland was involved in the civil war and most schools were shut' down except between 1969 and 1970 when very few in isolated hinterland areas reopened for studies. In the years immediately after the war, people concentrated on revitalizing their economic conditions. Some had to get back to their places of work in other non-Igbo states to secure their jobs while others had to look for new means of existence. New schools were not established and enrolment in the existing ones was low. Again, in 1971, government took over the control of all schools. Most teachers, in the secondary schools had Teacher's Grade II or the Nigerian Certificate of Education. (NCE) or Higher School Certificate (HSC). There were very fewgraduates,

The Second Republic of 1979,..1983 gave states a free hand in the control ofeducation because educatiQl1.Wg.s placed on the concurrent list.For

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some parts of Igboland declined steeply. The quest for materialism appears to have superceded that for education.

this reason State Universities, Colleges Education and Polytechnics were established in the 1980s. The effect. of geo-politics on education during General Babangida's regime was also the establishment of Federal unity secondary schools and polytechnics in Igboland.With the creation of more states, the establishment of schools at all levels increased, giving girls more access to education. Another major development is the establishment of satellite campuses of various universities, sandwich programmes and part-time programmes in tertiary institutions in Igboland. Women have continued to improve their education through these avenues, particularly teachers. It would appear that the liberal feminists' demand for equal opportunity has been fulfilled in terms of infrastructural development since the National Policy on Education guarantees that. The problem then could be located elsewhere, possibly as Alison Jagger, cited in Tong (1989:67), posited, in the conflicting demands made on women as wives, mothers, daughters, as well as the subjugation of her psyche. This socialist feminist stance, particularly the reproduction and sexuality determinants apply in Igboland. Even then the author of this paper feels that this situation can only delay the level of education the women can attain and given the encouragement she can study further.

The implementation of the National Policy on Education would have greatly improved the grammar school type of education that existed earlier because there was provision for pre-vocational subjects in addition. In practice, most schools do not have workshops for wood and metal work, electronics, mechanics and business studies. In fact many do not have laboratories for science subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics, This has hindered the potential of female scientists. It is paradoxical that while women education gained a lot of momentum in the 1980s and 1990s in Igboland, the education of the male folk in

The introduction of the compulsory Universal Free Basic Education (UBE) in 1999, which is to cater for the primary and first tier of the child's education in secondary school if well implemented will also boost women education. concern of feminists however is whether cultural forces that tend to hinder equal access to women education will not jeopardize the principle of equal access to education that is espoused in the UBE. The implication of the UBE scheme is that there will be an increase in demand for secondary, tertiary and teacher education if attrition rate is not high. The girl-child and women can utilize this opportunity to acquire and improve on their education. Education is not only for job employment. It is useful in every aspect of an individual's life particularly in this dispensation as the tendency is towards globalization. This should be.the essence and not gender. Conclusion I

The education of women is as important as that of men if both men and women are conceived as human beings, for we are all inescapably either male or female. This view has been interpreted differently at different periods in Igbo society. The difference in interpretation results from some forces of change that have overwhelmed each period, Although a historical discourse, the feminist analytical tool has been adopted in examining the issues discussed. There are several shades of feminist ideas but all seem to explain conditions that have oppressed women within the society and in their relationship with men. Consequently, in pre-colonial Igboland, because one was either born a man or woman one's sex determined one's roles and level of education. Surely education to an extent was based on gender. The practice of patriarchy further instituted gender dimorphism, which blended with colonial attitudetoward women education. Rather than

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Journal Of C'enderStudies

References constructing theandtogynous person, who is neither "1" (male) nor' "It" (female) - a person (personhood).) a synthesis of both genders, domesticity for 'the woman was re-affirmed .. The more damaging effect was and is (for those who are not fully liberated) on the psyche of the woman. For, she sees herself dependent on the man for status and integrity in the society. The quest for marriage robs her of being confident in herself, and engaging in male dominated disciplines that give her leverage for entry into assumed male dominated profession. In spite of the proliferation of schools at all levels that can guarantee sufficient access to education and the fact that educated Igbo parents, even rich illiterate ones, ensure that their female children are educated, attrition rate due to marriage, financial problems and desire for wifehood tend to affect acquisition of higher education especiallyhigher degrees. It can be inferred that with intensive women education campaigns by all

relevant agencies, and the appreciation of the relevance of education to every person, interest in women education will be sustained and negative attitudes very much reduced. The post~colonial period, particularly the new millennium has many challenges for which holistic women education is crucial and must be pursuedwith all vigour by both men and women on the path of globalization and development.

Notes 1.

I I

,

London University made its degrees accessible to women in 1878 while Oxford and Cambridge allowed women to sit their degree examinations but did not actually award them degrees. Oxford relented in 1920 while Cambridge did not until after the Second World War (Rooke 1972:86).

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. . Missions in Nigeria 1841-1891' T.h Ade-Ajayi , J "F (I 965) . Ch - ristian Makmg of a.New Elite. Lonon, d L ongman . e Group. Ltd.

Afigbo, AE. (1980) The Esatern Provinces Under Colonial R I . lkim 0 ( d) G - . 11 e m Heme, . e .Jro~m[Al'ork ofNigerian History lbadan emann Educational Books (Nigeria) Ltd. ' ' Address . 10 , Adaralegbe, A (ed) A Briggs, W.O . (1972) . O penmg Phllos~phy For Nigerian Education Nigerian EducationalRese h c 'I '. National CurricuI~rc o~ncI , Procedings of the Nigeria Ib d H' m Conference, 8-12 September 1969 a an, einemann Educational Books (Nigeria) Ltd. . Fafunwa, AB. (1978) "For African Children the Village Comm it ' One Bi~ ~amily of Teachers." The UNESCO COuU~~'1YEl'RS May EdItIOn. 1\ . , - - - - - . Al(1974) History ofEducation in Nigeria Londo G .' n, eorge 1en and Unwin Ltd.

Federal Republic ofNigeria (1981) National Policy on Education Lagos, Federal Government Press. ' Ifemeje, C.C. (1984) Evolution .0fNigeria Education I and II in Ukeie B.O. (ed) Foundations of Education B . C ~, ' Publishing Corporation. . . enm rty, Ethiope . , .. Mba, N.E. (1982) A tiNigerian . , Women Mobililzed:, tsr yyomen s Political . C tvuy 111 Southern Nigeria 1900-196' C 1'C' ' I nstit t f'Internati a norma' I u e 0 International Studies. ,.1.

79

Journal Of Gender Studies

Meena, R. (1992) Gender Research/Studies in Southern Africa: An Overview in Meena, R. (ed) Gender in Southern Africa: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues. Harare, Zimbabwe. SAPES BOOKS. Nsugbe, PO. (1974) Ohafia: A Matrilineal Ibo People. London, Oxford University Press. Nwachukwu, CB. and Akpuru-Aja, A. (1993) The Igbo in the Political Economy of Nigeria in Anyanwu, UD. and Aguwa, 1.C.U (eds) The Igbo and the Tradition ofPolitics. Enugu, Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd. Rooke, P. (f972) Women's Rights. London, Wayland Publishers. Tong, R. (1992) Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. London, Routledge. The United Nations Beijing Declaration and Platform For Action. A Monograph produced by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the United Nations Information Centre, Nigeria. Vogel, L (1983) Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory. New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press.

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