FACTORS MILITATING AGAINST THE ENROLMENT AND RETENTION OF GIRL-CHILD STUDENTS

The study investigated the factors militating against the enrolment and retention of girl-child students in Junior Secondary Schools in Kaduna State. Six research objectives were postulated and six null research hypotheses were tested.

The study population included all the Junior Secondary Schools in the 23 Local Government Areas of Kaduna State totalling 58,836. Using Krejcie and Morgan Table, 375 respondents were sampled from six Local Government Area; two each from the three (3) senatorial zones in the State. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Cronbcah method of reliability was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which was found to be . 815. Descriptive statistics involving item frequencies, mean, standard deviation and standard error were used to answer the research questions. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test all the six null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Significant relationships were found between the dependent variable and each of the six independent variables.

It was recommended that government should keep updated records of enrolment and retention of the girl-child in all schools, and schools should be built in all localities for easy access, government should enact laws against removal of girl-child from schools for marriage or any reason before completion of school and parents should consider their economic capability in planning their family size. It was concluded that religious leaders and traditional leaders have big responsibility of directing and encouraging their subjects on the importance of girl-child education.