Microsoft Word - 10_jwe_3-4.doc UDC: 37.046.14(669) JEL: I2; N37 ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER Enrolment, Attrition and Graduation of the Girl Child in Public Junior Secondary Schools in South West Nigeria, 1996-2006 Abari Ayodeji Olasunkanmi*, Oshun Grace Okaima, Lagos State University, Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Management, Ojo - Lagos, Nigeria A B S T R A C T The study examined the enrolment, attrition and graduation of the girl child in Junior Secondary Schools in South West Nigeria from 1999 to 2006 during which five cohorts were produced. This is against the backdrop of the launching of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1999, a programme that is designed not only to ensure that the child acquires basic skills in life but also to redress the gender imbalance in the Nigerian educational landscape and therefore ensure greater female participation in national development. Relevant data were collected through a Records Observation Format from 72 Junior Secondary Schools purposively selected from the urban and rural areas of the six States that constitute South West Nigeria namely Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oshun and Oyo States. Data collected were subjected to the t-test statistical analysis in consonance with the hypotheses formulated to guide the study. Results indicate no significant difference between enrolment and graduation in both urban and rural areas at 0.05 significant level indicating that the UBE programme is probably on course with respect to participation of the girl child. Among the recommendations are that brilliant but indigent female students be offered bursary and scholarship awards and that gender specific laws be enacted to protect female children from abuse and exploitation in order to ensure and assure their education. KEW WORDS: enrolment, attrition, graduation, girl child * E-mail: ayodejiabari@yahoo.com Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education (2010, No. 3-4, 59-70) 60 Introduction The last few decades have witnessed the emancipation of women in terms of access to education and the attainment of positions of authority. In spite of this, it is believed in some quarters that more need to be done to bridge the inequality in all ramifications between men and women to ensure that every citizen contributes meaningfully to national development. Thus, Gupta (2006) points out that although women have made great strides in improving their general educational status, gender gap still persists, particularly in the realm of secondary education. In an EFA Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO (2002), it is stated that gender disparities in primary education is amplified at the secondary level. This, the report claims, is responsible for the lowest levels of secondary enrolment for girls in Central and West Africa. “Generally, women’s levels of education are lower than men’s and the few girls who are educated are steered towards subjects preparing them for reproductive and domestic life rather than entrepreneurship (Ibeh, 2009). This suggests that the “social role of women predetermines their position in everyday occurrence” (Horvathova, 2009) including education. Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has set the agenda by formulating the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004) where provision is made for all primary school leavers to have access to secondary education irrespective of sex, social status, religious or ethnic background. In order to achieve these objectives, the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme was introduced in 1999. According to Okiy and as cited by Bilesanmi-Awoderu and Kalesanwo (2009), “the introduction to UBE is seen as a catalyst which will result in greater female participation in national development. She went further to opine that the scheme sets specifically to redress the gender imbalance which has been evident in the Nigerian educational landscape”. Furthermore, the scheme provides for free and compulsory education for the first nine years of school, that is, up to Junior Secondary School level which is referred to as Basic Nine under the UBE. According to Obanya (2001), UBE is expected to provide the type of education that is terminal since the programme was designed to ensure that a child acquires basic skills by the time he or she completes junior secondary school. Going by the findings of previous studies, secondary school enrolment usually fall short of the figures of pupils who completed primary Abari, A., et al., Enrolment, Attricition and Graduation, JWE (2010, No. 3-4, 59-70) 61 school (Obanya, 2004). Part of the cohort, mostly girls, would have drifted away while others were entering secondary schools seven years later. According to Obanya (2004), “a smaller proportion of girls are able to transit from primary to secondary schooling’. Similarly, Tanbawel, Ugochukwu, Akintomide, Agunwah, Okafor and Dada (2006), state that bias for boys’ enrolment is evident in the South West (Nigeria) as against the South East which displays a bias towards girls’ enrolment. The phenomenon of a girl enrolling in school and dropping out before the set time for completing her course of study is attributable to a number of factors. At the secondary school level, girls drop out due to such factors as early and unwanted pregnancy, early marriage, sexual harassment by male teachers, lack of encouragement by teachers, administrators, parents, and the wider society, inability of parents to provide learning materials, absence of a role model, tiredness when the child has been over-laboured, being forced to look after sick relations or siblings and having to walk long distance from home to school. This view is in consonance with that of Obanya (2004) who postulates that environmental hazards such as early marriage, unwanted pregnancies, gender insensitive education environment, teaching methods among others are responsible for drop-out among adolescent girls. Gupta (2006) notes that, in China, drop out is often attributed to boredom or dissatisfaction with school. UNICEF (2004) reports that the rate of female attrition is very high and the increasing number of drop-out has also complicated the problem associated with rising single parent families”. Moreover, Hallman, Peracca, Cationo and Ruiz (2007) conclude that the most critical age for dropout among girls is 12. This they state is the period when a girl transits from primary to secondary school. Apart from girls who drop out of school, there are some who have to repeat the same class, thereby constituting themselves into a waste to the system. According to UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report (2002), it is not in common to have the level of repetition by girls as being above 15%. The reasons adduced are the need to attend to domestic and other chores; low expectation of girls’ performance in school by parents and society, and curriculum and pedagogical biases. Added to the above are deep emotional problems which some girls find difficult to discuss with their parents. Rather, they speak to their friends and classmates who may misinform them. Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education (2010, No. 3-4, 59-70) 62 The need to stay in school and complete her education at every level of the education system is very essential to the girl child. Graduation at the end of a set course of study is dependent to a very large extent on school attendance, diligence and the ability to obtain good grades. Bolarin (2005) asserts that at the secondary school level, female participation dwindles and only a small percentage of girls complete secondary education. The government, parents and teachers have important roles to play to ensure that a girl who has been enrolled in school remains within the school, benefits from the instructions and graduates. The government sets the tone of the school through the school administrators. It performs the role of providing infrastructural facilities, instructional materials, laboratories and other facilities to facilitate the teaching and learning process. The parents need to prepare the girl child psychologically for school. She has to be made to understand the importance of education and be provided the learning materials. All her other needs have to be met by parents to prevent her from being influenced by negative forces which may make her drop out of school. The teacher is said to be in loco-parentis to his students. The teacher, therefore, has to play the role of a parent as well as that of a counsellor. The teacher needs to encourage the girl child to work hard, guide her in career choice and help to boost her self-confidence in order to succeed. In spite of the foregoing, to what extent then, has the UBE Policy and Programme achieved its ends particularly in ensuring the girl child education and, therefore, in ensuring the enrolment and graduation of the girl child at the Junior Secondary School level since the policy was launched in 1999 and up till 2006? What specifically was then the status of enrolment, attrition and graduation of the girl child in urban and rural public Junior Secondary Schools in South West Nigeria from 1999 to 2006? And is there any significant difference between enrolment and graduation in these schools during the period under study? Methodology The study population comprised all public junior secondary schools in the six states that constitute the South-Western geo-political zone of Nigeria namely Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States. The study sample was drawn from six public junior secondary schools in urban areas and six public junior secondary schools in rural areas from each of the six Abari, A., et al., Enrolment, Attricition and Graduation, JWE (2010, No. 3-4, 59-70) 63 states in the zone. The schools were selected through purposive sampling technique and in such a way that, as much as possible, no two schools were selected from the same local government in the sates. This produced a total of 72 sample schools. A Records Observation format on Girl-Child Enrolment Attrition and Graduation which serves as a primary source of data collection was administered on the sample junior secondary schools’ principals. The format was used to seek information on statistics of school enrolment, attrition and graduation from 1999 to 2006. During this period (1999 to 2006), five cohorts were produced. The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study: 1. There is no significant difference between enrolment and graduation of the girl child in urban public junior secondary schools in South West Nigeria. 2. There is no significant different between enrolment and graduation of the girl child in rural public junior secondary schools in South West Nigeria. The hypotheses were subjected to the t-test statistical analysis. Data Analysis The data collected from the sample schools were collated and the means of the girl-child’s enrolment, graduation and attrition derived. These were processed into frequencies and percentages in order to present a quantitative analysis of each of the cohorts in all the sample public junior secondary schools in all the states in South West Nigeria. Table 1: Enrolment, Attrition and Graduation of Girl Child in Public Junior Secondary Schools in South West Nigeria from 1999-2006 Urban Rural Enrolment Attrition Gradua-tion Enrolmen Attrition Gradua- tion Ekiti 4,457 475 3,982 3,364 560 2,804 Lagos 12,769 687 11.082 8,983 1,241 7,742 Ogun 6,277 459 5,818 2,808 108 2,628 Ondo3,835 474 3,361 2,577 557 2,020 Osun 4,555 265 4,190 3,518 205 3,313 Oyo 3,578 358 3,220 3,700 221 3,479 Source: Fieldwork Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education (2010, No. 3-4, 59-70) 64 Table 1 gives a picture of enrolment, attrition and graduation during the period 1999-2006, which was covered by the study. Lagos State has the highest figures for enrolment and graduation as well as attrition both in the urban and rural secondary schools. Attrition is high in rural schools in Ondo State in spite of the fact that it has low enrolment compared with other states. Test of Hypothesis 1 There is no significant difference between enrolment and graduation of the girl child in urban public Junior Secondary Schools in South West Nigeria. In testing this hypothesis, the paired student t-test was used. Table 2: Summary of t-test Analysis of Difference Between Enrolment and Graduation of the Girl Child in Urban Public Junior Secondary Schools. Source Mean SD N df t-cal t-tab Decision Enrolment 085.3 2395 36 70 0.1849 1.67 H0 Graduation 879.3 2112.86 Table 2 reveals that there is no significant difference between the enrolment and graduation of the girl-child in urban public junior secondary schools. (t-cal 0.1849