Demographic, Socio-economic and Cultural Factors Affecting School Participation of Rural Girls: The Case in Qimbibit District Oromia,Ethiopia
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Date
2005-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Female education is recognized as one of the important pathways to promote social and
economic development. In Oromiya , evidence from different sources indicates that although
there ha ve been improvements in fema le participation, girls' and women's access to education
remains limited in several zones in the region . It is evident that girls have less access to and
more like ly to drop out of school than boys. Factors that contribu'ied for' less 'eau'caf ional
participation of rural girls are varying from place to place in their type and intensity.
This study found out the major demographic, socio-economic and socio-cultural variab les that
influenced educational participation of rural girls in Qimbibit district. It was based on primary
data collected from parents (selected ru ral households ), primary school and out of school girls
and primary school teachers. After the data has been collected and edited, SPSS computer
soft ware was used to code, recode and analysis. Uni variate ana lytical method was used in
describing the background characteristics of the study population. After the association
between independent and dependent variables had been tested using bivariate analytical
.method (i.e., Chi-square test), logistic regression was used for further ana lysis.
The result of this research finding indicates that Variables such as age of parents, family size,
parents' basic assets, literacy status of parents, abduction and sexual harassments and
parents' attitudes towards girls' education are the major ones affecting school partiCipation of
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rural girls. Based on the findings of th e study the investigator recommended areas of
interve ntion to tackle the prob lem and reduce its future consequence. Among the
recommendations:-
• Increasing awareness (Educating parents and the community) :- community and
parental resistance to girls' education is not limited to obvious economic reasons,
some times they lack appreciation of the benefits , misunderstand the schooling
process and are ignorant of educationa l opportunities open to their daughters.
Hence, community influential persons, elders and religious leaders should intensively
partic ipate in educating parents and the community about the benefits of educating
girls in addition to the use of ed ucation media . Thi s needs a close and intact
supervision and follow-up by concerned government and non-government
organ iz at ions.
Empower rural women both economically and socia ll y. Th is can be possible through :-
A) Providing both formal and informal education opportunities.
B) Parti c ipating in income generating activities that doesn 't require mu ch labor,
rathe r this needs new technology and redu ce labor force.
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Keywords
Participation of Rural Girls