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 . -, ' , . 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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Participation of Rural Girls

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