Examining attitude towards girl – child education in Jamestown

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.