Abstract:
The study set out to examine the role that education plays in the
empowerment of the girl- child within Jamestown. It also examined the attitude of
the girl-child and their parents towards the education of the girl-child and strategies
that could be put in place to encourage the girl child to give priority to education.
Descriptive and cross – sectional designs were adopted to study 252
household heads and 115 students. Questionnaires were used to collect data from
both set of respondents. Statistical tools used to analyse the data collected included
descriptive tools such as means, medians, frequencies and percentages. Inferential
statistics, such as chi –square with independent sample t- test and phi – statistic
were also used to test for significant differences and associations where applicable.
The study found that the household heads generally showed supportive
attitudes towards educating their female wards, however predispositions that girls
were less intelligent than boys were not indicative of the positive attitude towards
girl-child education. Moreover, household heads did not exhibit adequate support
for their female children in terms of regular payment of dues, following up and
monitoring the progress of their wards, and getting personally involved in the
education of their female wards. The commonest challenge faced by household
heads in educating their wards had todo with financing education of the girl-child.
The study recommended that household heads should get involved in their wards
education and performance monitoring, and for students to report all physical
abuses by teachers and to seek school- counseling to help them deal with the issues
of stigmatisation.
