CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

          The education of children is an important duty of parents and government duty of parents and the government. The education process starts in the home, but it continues in school when children reach schools age. It is necessary to emphasize from the on set that the attempt here is analyze the causes and effect of educational imbalance is to acknowledge the fact that certain factors are responsible for the educational imbalance among male and female students in Uhunmwonde to be exact. A critical examination of these factors will give a clear understanding of the differences in the number of male and female in school.

          According to the national policy on education (1998_) the 6-3-3-4 programme starts when the child spend six years in primary schools three years in higher education. The national policy on education also recognized the importance of pre-primary education hence it urged parents to provide such education for their children. Parents generally wish to educate all their children whether they are poor or rich, educated or illiterate, they realize the immerge importance of school education. However, there are certain problems which make it difficult for parents to provide education for all the children. One of such problems is economic for financial problems in the home. Education is very expensive and many families are unable to provide the money to educate all the boys and girls children. If there is not enough money to send all the children which of the children to sent to school. The others are kept in the home to assist in farming, cooking and business, there are also culture and religions tradition and custom of the people, which influence the attitudes of parents towards the education of boys and girls for example, because male children in her it their fathers properties most Nigerians tribal families, the male are considered more important than the female children. Therefore, parents tend to make more effort to educate the boys than the girls. Moreover, the girls are expected to mature and leave their parents to live with their husband in the house, some parents feel that money spent on education of the boys is an investment for the further wealth of the family. For religions reasons, the female children in some Moslem families are not given easy freedom to attend school, this is to protect them from too much Muslim association with male. It protects them from the society. Another factor that influences the willingness of parents to send their children to schools is the availability of school near their house. In some part of the country there are not many schools. The school in the locality may be too for from home and there may be no transportation to go to school for safety reason, parents may decide not to take the risk of following the young children to walk the long distance to school. This is particularly the case if the child’s is a girl or the health of the child is not too good.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

          Education is an instrument for the development of an individual and their society. It is so important that every person should be well educated. The problems of illiteracy and half education are so many that no parents should deny his or her child the opportunity or right to receive good education. But there are facts which militate against male and female enjoying the same unequal access to education. Some of these factors affects some parents and families more than other. The educational, cultural, religious or economical problems. The factors influencing educational imbalance likely to differ according to whether the child concerned is a male or a female, when ever a parents in not in a position to provide equal access to education for all his children, a choice has to be made which may be in favour of the male or female. The parent’s attitudes to the education of male and female we determine which of the children to send to school. In Nigeria society, the changes are that the boys will be favored more than the girls. The problems can lead to more illiterate or inadequately educated girls than boys in the community. It also amount to denial of the girl’s fundamental right for a better future life.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY     

          The main purpose and objective of the study is to critically examine the causes and the effect of educational imbalance among male and female students in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area of Edo State. The study also aimed at investigating the influence of certain factors and personal characteristics of parents on their attitudes towards the education of boys and girls. The factors include the sex of parents, there social economic status, their level of education, their religion background from the findings of the study, recommendations will be made on how to get parents to appreciate the need to give both male and female equal opportunity to receive equal education.

RESEARCH QUESTION

          In order to study the causes and the effect of educational imbalance among male and female students the following research questions have been put forward.

1.            Are there imbalances in the number of male and female students in schools?

2.            Does the economic or financial status of parents influence the education of male and female?

3.            Do religious background of parents influences his or her attitude towards the education of male and female.

4.            Does the educational background or level of a parents influence his attitude towards the education of his children.

5.            Does the family size of a parents influences his or her attitudes towards the education of male and female?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY   

          This study is important because girls on many Nigerian houses and societies are often not given the same opportunities to education as is given to the boys. The girls usually suffer some discrimination especially if her parents are poor, uneducated or have many children to carter for I school. The introduction of universal basic education (UBE) will help to increase opportunity to change the attitude of parents nor remove all the cultural prejudice against females. The study is also significant in the sense that it will help to expose which factors are most influential in determining what attitudes we may reasonably expect from different types of parents, such information from this study should be useful to government and those who manage the educational system. It will enable them to plan properly on how to enforce the compulsory attendance required by the universal basic education programme for all children of primary and junior school age that is free and compulsory education for children from the age of 6-15 years.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

          The study will involve the total scope of the study of Uhunmwonde Local Government Area in Benin City, Edo State. Due to the nature of the topic the causes and effect of educational imbalance among male and female students in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area in Edo State the researcher was subjected to certain limitations such as time; ill health; finance and non availability of research materials.

          Nevertheless, the conduct of the research or had been in such a manner that major constraints have been over come such as possible.

DEFINITION OF TERMS    

Religious Background: Refer to the belief or the religion a parents belong to whether Christian or Islam.

Illiterate: Parents who is unable to read and write.

Occupation: refers to what a parents does for a living. In this study all government workers are classified as public servants. Those who are engaged in business of what every type are put together. The rest are classified as farmers.

Parent: As used in the study include any man or woman who is married or devoted whether or not he or she has children at school.

Attitude: This refers to the various way people perceive things or events or the way they react to issues.

Deceptive: As used in the study refers to the unreliable answers.

Meager limited resources (finance)  

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