The Influence of Socioeconomic, Cultural and School Based Factors on Access to Primary Education Among Girls in Bali LGA, Taraba State Nigeria

Abstract

The best practice for developing any society lies in investing in human capital, especially, through education. Nigeria has set out policy for free basic education. However, despite heavy investment in the sector, access to basic education for the girl child remains a challenge. The study sought to establish factors influencing low access of the girl child to free primary education in Nigeria with a focus on Bali Local Government Area (LGA). Quantitative data collected were analyzed using content analysis and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences respectively. Data were presented using inferential statistics. The study established that socioeconomic, cultural, school based factors impeded girl child access to free primary education. (Under socio-economic factors, income levels, significantly influenced access at (p=.002**), educational level was associated with access at (p=.002**), family size and child labour, impacted on access at (p=.033* and p=.043*).Under cultural factors, religious belief significantly influenced access at (p= .002), early marriage was related to access at (p=.024*), patriarchal ideology influenced access at (p=.003**) (already discussed in the other paper).Under school based factors, only distance to school was associated to access at (p=.004**).The study recommended that the Ministry of Education should collaborate with Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as UNICEF and USAID to organize school feeding programmes among communities.