One third of adolescent girls are currently married in Nigeria, and in the Northwest region the median age at marriage is 15 years old (Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2013). Married girls comprise a sizeable proportion of the millions of children out of school across the northern states. Yet, their voices are rarely heard while their educational rights are denied.
This paper (re)presents girls’ voices and views on marriage, schooling, and whether and how girls can cross these two bounded domains. In doing so, I will consider the implications of different pathways through adolescence for responsive and inclusive educational policy-making, which addresses the needs and rights of married and unmarried adolescent girls, in Northern Nigeria and beyond.
My ongoing mixed method doctoral research foregrounds the voices of girls aged 12-19 in and around four primary and secondary schools in Kaduna state, Northwest Nigeria, interviewed in-depth in 2011 as part of ActionAid’s Transforming Education for Girls project. Married adolescent girls’ marginalisation from formal basic schooling is manifold: the majority who drop out of school for marriage and never return have significant unmet educational needs; those who do return to school confront discrimination in teaching and learning and relentless uncertainty about their identity and status.
The dichotomy between marriage and schooling is endemic in educational discourse and practice. Yet the reality of many Kaduna girls’ lives, presented by girls themselves, is one in which marriage and schooling are in constant negotiation, with boundaries figuratively and literally crossed and re-crossed. Thus, the dichotomising perceptions, practices and policies of educationalists, viewing marriage and schooling as incompatible, may be counter-productive, contributing to, rather than countering, processes of exclusion.
