Out of School Children: Enhancing Factors and Consequences for Sustainable Development in North Central Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria

Abstract

Education is a key to development and sustainable development. Children out of school deter development and sustainable development. The purpose of the study is an investigation on Out of school children: enhancing factors and consequences for sustainable development in North Central Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria. The design of the study was a survey research design which involves the retrieving of data from selected respondents representing the entire population comprising of teachers and parents in the North Central Geo-Political zone of Nigeria. The sample size of 800 respondents was selected from the 2 sample states drawn through simple random sampling techniques. Four research questions and four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research strategies in analyzing the data. Data was gathered through questionnaire titled ‘Out of School Children Questionnaire’ (OSCQ). The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation scores and independent t test statistic was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The finding of the study revealed that poverty, child labour, teenage pregnancy and distance to school are the major causes of children out of school in the North Central Geo Political zone. Also menial jobs were major implication of out of school children. Based on the findings of the study the recommendations made were that punishment should be prescribed for parents whose children are out of school and there should be poverty reduction strategies in the development of appropriate policies and intervention strategies to help poor people improve their living standard.