Parents’ Perspective on Female Students’ Dropouts in Nigeria

Authors

  • Ahmad Kainuwa School of Educational Studies Universiti Sains Malaysia Pulau Pinang, Penang
  • Najeemah Binti Mohammad Yusuf School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Keywords:

Parents’ perspective, female students’ dropouts, socio-economic status, cultural traditions and practice, religious belief

Abstract

The high rate of female students’ dropouts in Nigeria is a cause for concern and it means that social and public policies have to be realigned to tackle this important issue. Although there are many reasons for female students dropping out of school as given in various studies on the subject, this paper tries to explore the reasons from the parents’ perspective. The findings in this paper are drawn from a research study on dropouts in Nigeria based on data collected from junior secondary schools of Shinkafi Local government Zamfara state. Quantitative research design was adopted for this study and data were collected from the parents of female students’ dropouts and non-dropouts through questionnaires. T-Test was used to examine the significant difference between parents’ socio-economic support, parents’ cultural traditions and practice and parent’s religious belief on female students’ dropouts from parents’ perspective. In the course of discussion, the paper reviews literature on how socio-economic status, cultural traditions and practice and religious belief from the parents’ perspectives affects the education of their female children; in addition, studies and researches from the previous works of scholars relating to the parents’ perspectives on female students’ dropout were also analyzed and discussed throughout the paper. The results of the study reveals that though the enrollment rate of female students increased from time to time there is a serious problem of dropouts more especially in junior secondary schools. The study has also discovered that the dropout rate of female students is still very high and still remains worrisome particularly in rural areas. This is further worsened by traditional system and belief pattern of gender disparity, and high incidence of early marriage of very young girls based on value system. The major reasons behind drop outs were mentioned in the findings of the paper with some little explanations on each reason. The paper concluded that there is significant difference between parents’ socio-economic support, parents’ cultural traditions and practice and parent’s religious belief on female students’ dropouts from the parent’s perspectives.

 

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Published

2013-10-22

How to Cite

Parents’ Perspective on Female Students’ Dropouts in Nigeria. (2013). Asian Journal of Education and E-Learning, 1(4). https://ajouronline.com/index.php/AJEEL/article/view/526

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