Historically, girls' education in Nigeria has faced numerous challenges. Deep-seated cultural norms, economic disparities, and security issues have been barriers to access to quality education for girls. These challenges have resulted in a significant gender gap in literacy and school enrollment rates.

The global figure for out-of-school children is estimated at 121 million, 65 million being girls. 7.6 million girls are Out of School (OOS) in Nigeria: 3.9 million at the primary and 3.7 million at the junior secondary level.

More than 50% of girls are not attending school at the basic education level. In each cohort, 1 million girls drop out between the first and last year of primary school, and 0.6 million between Primary six (6) and JSS1.

Pervasive poverty, peer pressure, early marriage, unwanted pregnancy, negligence, rape, ignorance, being their family's burden bearers, and lack of parental care are identified as the major challenges hindering girl child education in Nigeria. Many girls do not have access to adequate education past a certain age, those girls that have access, drop out of the school as a result of early marriage compared to the male child.

In 2010, the female adult literacy rate (ages 15 and above) for Nigeria was 59.4% in comparison to the male adult literacy rate of 74.4%. While over the years the Federal government of Nigeria has formulated several policies to tackle this issue of improving girl child education. The challenges are still very prevalent.

The study shows that the major factors hampering girl child are interrelated and that the Federal Government working in synergy with State and Local Governments must adopt an integrated and holistic strategic framework that would address this issue. The Federal government must also provide the Strategic and visionary Leadership that is required to bring a lasting impact on the narrative of girl child education in Nigeria.