Community-Based Radio towards Effective Girl-Child Education in Kumbungu District

Abstract

Girl-child is a biological female offspring from birth to eighteen (18) years of (Offorma, 2009). Girls’ education is also about ensuring that girls learn and feel safe while in school; complete all levels of education with the skills to effectively compete in the labor market; learn the socio-emotional and life skills necessary to navigate and adapt to a changing world; make decisions about their own lives and contribute to their communities and the world (Tembon & Fort, 2008). Community radio is a radio of the people by the people and for the people which need to broadcast developmental programs. Community radio should be able to broadcast educational related programs like youth speak up, especially with respect to Girl-child education. This will help change the perception of the local people about educating the girl-child. It is within this perspective that, community radio can be used as a tool towards enhancing Girl-child education towards an ameliorated national development within Kumbungu District using the Mixed Method Approach (Quantitative and Qualitative methods), and informants’ interviews and; Semi-structured questionnaires for household interviews to assess how community-based radio can be used to bring about effective Girl-Child education. The study also used both secondary and primary data with the help of self-administered questionnaire. 150 respondents were interviewed within 5 communities in the study area using both simple random and purposive sampling. It was realized that, there was least participation of members in programing within the study area. It was also found that factors such as age, marital status, and community radio influence, perception of Girl-Child education and program influenced were independent variables that influenced effective radio programs listening towards Girl-Child education.