Factors Influencing Academic Aspiration of Females in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State

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.