Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has advised Nigerians against discriminating against the girl-child, particularly in the area of education.
Oloyede stated this at a lecture commemorating the elevation of Mrs Morufat Balogun to the rank of professor and the 55th birthday celebration of her husband, Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Balogun, in Ibadan on Sunday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports Balogun was recently elevated to the rank of professor of Genetics by the University of Ibadan.
NAN also reports that the theme of the celebration was: “Celebration of the Girl-child Education.”
The JAMB registrar said that education of every child, whether male or female, mattered, maintaining, however, that more attention should be given to education of the girl-child.
“Every child, male or female, deserves to be educated.
“From the statistics available from the university, if you go to the registration centre now, you will see that less than 60 per cent of those registering for JAMB are girls.
“This used to be from a particular part of the country before but it spread the whole of the country. We must change our slogan, as education of every child matters,” Oloyede said.
Speaking on the new professor, Oloyede noted that her father gave birth to seven daughters, some of whom were now doctor, pharmacist and lecturer, among others.
According to him, given birth to only females by the father of the professor has not reduced anything from him, adding that it was an indication that everyone must strive to educate the children, either males or females.
In their separate lectures, Prof. Afis Oladosu, of Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan and Dr Khadijat Shobowale, of Lagos State University (LASU, stressed the importance of education.
Shobowale said that Islam had made seeking of knowledge compulsory, irrespective of gender.
