TITLE:
Factors Influencing Academic Aspiration of Females in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State
AUTHORS:
Raphael I. Ngwoke
KEYWORDS:
Academic Aspiration, Females, Ezeagu, Local Government Area
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.3,
March
25,
2020
ABSTRACT: The study considered factors that influence educational aspirations of females in Ezeagu Local Government Area
of Enugu State of Nigeria. Two purposes and two research questions were
formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey study design was used to carry out the study. The population of the
study was all the married and unmarried adults resident in the rural part of
the eighteen communities that make up Ezeagu Local Government Area, which stood
at 169,718 by the 2006 population census. A structured questionnaire entitled
“Educational Aspiration of Ezeagu Females” was designed and used to collect
data from respondents. A randomized multi-stage sampling technique was used to
select 700 respondents of both married and unmarried males and females in the
Local Government Area. The 18 communities that make up the Local Government
Area were grouped into four zones for easy sampling and data collection namely:
Agu-obu, Akam-ezi, Obele-ofia, and Okpolo-agu. The instrument for data collection was a four-point likert scale of Strongly Agreed (SA) = 4 points, Agreed (A) = 3 points,
Disagreed (D) = 2 points, Strongly Disagreed (SD) = 1 point. Items with mean score of 2.5 and above were accepted as agreeing with factors affecting
educational aspirations of females in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State,
while items with mean score below 2.5
were not accepted (rejected). Results showed that most married women that did
not acquire university education did not have interest in sending their female children to higher schools having accepted their own
status as ideal. Results also showed that while most men acknowledged the
complementary values of women with higher
academic qualifications to their husbands, most other men see higher education
ventures for females as deliberate waste
of funds. Based on these findings, recommendations were made, which included
that both the local, state and Federal Government should carry out
adequate enlightenment campaign to sensitize both males and females of the
inevitable need for higher education for females especially in a developing
world as ours. It was also recommended that management of Ezeagu Local
Government Area should liaise with Enugu State Government to provide financial
empowerment to the poverty-stricken locals of the state with a view to motivating
them to educate their females.