developments start and progress to get to the peak at the young adult stage (Sutherland, 2001). The development of any society would be grossly lopsided if the girl child is not given quality education. Education in any normal society is accepted as an instrument to power, prestige, survival, greatness and advancement for men and women. The United Nations General Assembly (2001) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which stipulates that everyone has the right to education which shall be free at least in elementary and primary stages. Similarly, the National Policy on Education emphasizes among other things that there were equal opportunities for all citizens. However, Osinulu (2013) lamented that the girl child is discriminated against in terms of education and given out to marriage early thereby denying the girl-child the required competences for community development. According to Osinulu (1994) and Akinpelu (2000) education is the process of providing information to an inexperienced person to help the individual develop physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, politically and economically. Education is the process through which individuals are made functional members of their society (Ocho, 2005). It is a process through which the young acquires knowledge and realizes her potentials and uses them for self actualization. It enables her to be useful to herself and others. It was means of preserving, transmitting and improving the culture of the society. In every society education connotes acquisition of something good, something worthwhile. Education is implicitly a part of culture as it is a life-long learning process that enables a person, irrespective of age; understand the relationship between the environment and his or her peculiar circumstances. Education, whether formal, informal or non- formal, helps towards the development of a complete balanced and rational personality. Consequently, the lack of education had been negative influences on the individual, family and society at large. According to Ferguson and Dickens (2003) Community Development (CD) seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by providing these groups with the skills they need to effect change in their own communities. They stressed further that Community Development involves changed the relationships between ordinary people in positions of power so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives. It starts from the fact that within any community there was a wealth of knowledge, experience and creativity which could be harnessed and channeled into collective action to achieve the community’s desired goals. Thus, education can rightly be said to be the key to effective participation in Community Development.
Marshal (2003) states that women made up more than half of the African population, and they have been known to have contributed in many ways to the development of the society. Hence, for the girl-child to face the challenges of our time, full participation requires they have access to the benefits of formal and informal education to the same level, and of the same quality as that given to the men. He stressed that it is the only way the girl-child can contribute maximally to the socio-economic development of their communities and Africa at large. In support of this, Schacter (2010) argued that children’s intelligence could be significantly influenced by environmental changes and that early childhood was a key to improving later performances in various aspects of the individual’s life. It is in the light of the above that Stronquist (2000) stressed that Girl-child education involves equipping girls who later grow up to women with the knowledge, abilities and mental powers with which they have been useful to themselves, the family and the society.
