How River Kaduna denies girls access to higher education

After several appeals by residents of Kurmin Kaduna in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State for a junior secondary school, respite came when the Kaduna State Government granted the approval that has seen many girls, including housewives, make effor

It’s been 20 years since Aisha Aliyu, 35, found herself within the four walls of a classroom. She now sits on a wooden desk she shares with two girls. Draped in a navy-blue hijab that covers a white long-sleeve gown and trousers, which she wears as school uniform, Aisha became a student of the recently approved Junior Secondary School, Kurmin Kaduna, one of the state’s oldest communities. She joined her classmates to read from a textbook with a character that coincidentally bears her name.

“This is Aisha, she is 10 years old…” the mother of six, read, joining other students to chorus the content of the book, as a volunteer teacher standing in front of the classroom listened.

Aisha joined Mardiyya Aminu, 33, Bilkisu Abdulrahman, 28, and three other housewives to return to school. The women, aged between 22 and 35 years, plan to complete their junior secondary education, which stalled due to lack of access and early marriage.

“We only had a primary school in Kurmin Kaduna,” Aisha said, referring to the community’s dilapidated primary school that has existed since 1975.

“In 2002, after completing my primary education, marriage became the only option,” she added.

The nearest junior secondary school from Kurmin Kaduna is Government Secondary

School, Rafin Guza, which is less than three kilometres from Aisha’s community.

River Kaduna, a 550-kilometre-long tributary of the Niger River, keeps girls from continuing with their education because the trip to the school requires a risky canoe ride. By land, a long, winding dirt road that stretches about 20 kilometres cuts off Kurmin Kaduna from other urban communities, making it hard-to-reach.

While most boys from the community continued with their education at Rafin Guza, many women in Aisha’s age group ended at primary school and were married off at the age of 15.

To get to a secondary school, the boys relied on a 30-minute canoe ride from Kurmin Kaduna to get to one of the two canoe posts at Rafin Guza and Malalin Gabas.

For Aisha and other girls, the absence of a bridge between Kurmin Kaduna and Rafin Guza meant they either had to take the boat ride or forfeit their education. The fear of drowning - something which often happened due to the unworthiness of the boats - discouraged the girls and their parents from taking advantage of the daily boat ride to cross the river and pursue their secondary school education.

“Girls are not taught to swim, but the boys learn to swim at an early age,” explained Mardiyya Aminu, a mother of four, who, like Aisha, has returned to school. Aminu brings her 9-month-old twins to class. Mardiyya said although it is free for all students to hitch a canoe ride, canoe paddlers prefer to accommodate their paying passengers before allowing the students to board.

“Often, the canoes capsize because they are old and are often overloaded. When this happens, majority of the women and girls drown as they cannot swim. It is mainly because of this that our parents asked us to forfeit junior secondary education,” she said.

Dayyabu Adamu, whose daughter was married at 15 seven years ago, said boys often learned to swim at an early age, but the river is no place for girls or women who want to swim.

“Swimming involves exposing the body, something that is frowned at in Islam and is against cultural practices which demand that girls and women cover their bodies,” he said.

Aisha Aliyu’s father, Mohammadu Aliyu, corroborated this, saying, “Our girls cannot swim and the canoes sometimes capsize. The paddlers often delay them because they will have to convey their paying passengers before they consider the students. Often, there is a struggle between the boys and girls to get into the canoes and the boys have a better chance of fighting for space, which means that the girls end up getting to school late.”

He said the girls were frequently caned because of getting to school late. Moreover, most parents could not afford to take their daughters to boarding schools or provide facilities where they could stay to avoid the risky daily crossing. This discouraged the girls from attending secondary school.

How community got state government to approve school

In July 2022, the Kaduna State Government approved a junior secondary school for Kurmin Kaduna following several appeals by youths and leaders of the community. The government had approved the community’s primary school: LGEA Kurmin Kaduna as a temporary learning space for the now 108 students, including Aisha Aliyu and Mardiyya Aminu.

Kurmin Kaduna, a farming and fishing community, is surrounded by Unguwan Kudu, Mashigi, Makwalla, Kahuta, Unguwan Tudu, Sabon Garin Tudu and Kurmin Kaduna Gari communities. The eight communities have no secondary school, but share three primary schools, amongst them LGEA Kurmin Kaduna, LGEA Kurmin Kaduna Gari and UBE Unguwar Tudu. The absence of a bridge to connect the communities to Kaduna metropolis makes boat ride the fastest and easiest means of transportation.

Dauda Ismail, the chairman of Kurmin Kaduna Youth Action and Awareness Forum, said the community had been worried about the decline in girl-child education and made several verbal and written appeals between 2019 and 2022, through the local government, their legislators and the state government.