Gender-Based Violence: Implications for Girl-Child Education in Some Selected Displaced Persons Camps in Maiduguri

Abstract

Factors other than economic development account for disparities between rich and poor countries’ levels of educational achievement. Gender-based violence includes brittleness and hostility that have widened the achievement gap between boys and girls. The intersectionality of violence against women and girls made it to be a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon that affects almost every aspect of individual life, including personal and intellectual development which education as society’s basic social institution served. Though, there is no gain in saying that gender violence has no implications on education at all levels. This paper examines gender-related violence and its implications on girl-child education in some selected displaced person camps in Maiduguri. A total of 403 respondents were conveniently selected across displaced persons camps in Maiduguri. However, interviews and questionnaires were used as instruments for data collection and both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. It was revealed that the majority of respondents thought that the magnitude of gender-related violence in displaced person camps in Maiduguri was very immense with detrimental consequences on displaced person’s well-being and the school being among the danger zone for gender violence. The result of the correlation analysis revealed that there is a moderate positive relationship between forceful reiteration, blackmail, degrading, and blame games from/by parents/guardians and gender-based violence indicating that an increase in these factors is found to be associated with gender-based violence. This paper suggested community education on the negative gender stereotypes through community workshops, educational and empowerment programs, and localized campaigns to dismantle harmful gender stereotypes that exacerbate violence against women.