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Nigeria: Women Academics Demand Equality in Education Management
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This Day (Lagos)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Lagos
The under representation of women in the management of higher educational institutions in Nigeria was the focus of a round table organised by Accessure Educational, an advocacy group on education, in conjunction with the Goethe-Institut Lagos, recently. Uchechukwu Nnaike reports
As in most parts of the world, women are still under-represented in higher education management in the country. Female deans and professors are a minority group, while female vice chancellors are a rarity. This was the submission of the organisers of a round table on Women as Leaders in Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities, organised by Accessure Educational, an advocacy group on education, in conjunction with the Goethe-Institut in Lagos.
The event, which featured female academics in Nigerian higher institutions, therefore became necessary for women who have attained notable positions in the system, against all odds, to share their experience and discuss issues like, what has to be done to raise the number of women in key positions in higher education; how successful female academics achieved their current positions and to determine if there were typical feminine social and management qualities that could be beneficial to the whole sector. Project Director of Accessure Educational, Mr. Bayo Olupohunda said the meeting was also to encourage women in higher education to aspire for leadership positions.
One of the Discussants and Acting Dean of Faculty of Education at the University of
Lagos, Prof. Olufunke Lawal, said in the history of her university, there has been only one female Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Acting Dean, no female Vice-Chancellor, Bursar and other principal officers. This, she said, tends to inhibit women's influence. Although she admitted that the situation was improving, she said, women still have a lot of work to do to make an appreciable impact in higher education management in the country.
Director of Programme, Technical and Vocational Education at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos , Dr. Patricia Okumabor, said there were more male students in the Engineering and technological fields, while women are mostly found in the Liberal Arts and Humanities. This situation, she said is also widespread in some monotechnics and polytechnics across the country. Apart from the lopsided admission figures, females are found in other less competitive courses which limit their future potentials.
These issues were articulated in a communiqué issued at the end of the round table where participants observed that there is gender discrimination, which is often subtle and systemic. "Though no policy statements discriminate against women, academia has long been dominated by men, and the male perspective in policy development, performance evaluation, and interpersonal interactions generally prevail."
The group said women's classroom performance was often evaluated more critically than men's and that research by women or about women was frequently undervalued by male colleagues. Initial salary differentials between men and women increase in favour of men and women take two to ten years longer than men to be promoted.
It was then recommended that obstacles in institutions that prevent women from achieving their full potentials should be removed and that formal and informal policies which would encourage women to function optimally should be adopted and enforced.
Specifically, they said institutions should address inequities in hiring, promotion, tenure, and salaries of women academics. Adding that there was need for on-campus child care facilities. If universities are large enough, they should be able to support a child care facility.
They also recommended mentoring of young and aspiring female academics by successful ones; scholarship provided for bright female scholars and giving of grants, to female researchers as well as increase enrolment of the girl-child into tertiary institutions.
It was further recommended that women should be encouraged to embrace new technologies in their research and teaching and that their achievement should be celebrated for their motivation.
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Other participants at the roundtable included, Mrs. Modupe Adeniran, Acting Director, department of Research and Innovation, National Universities Commission; Prof. Modupe Ogunlesi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Research, University of Lagos; Prof. Aize Obayan, Vice- Chancellor, Covenant University Ota, Ogun State; Dr. Beatrice Ayankogbe, President, National Association of Women Academics (NAWACS) and Uchenna Udeani, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education University of Lagos.
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