CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Research has determined that parental attitude and support has a great deal of influence on the education of the girl child in tertiary institution. Parents are mainly influenced by traditional beliefs regarding the ideal roles of women and girls in the society. Traditionally, the only roles available to women were those of wives and mothers. Women were thus seen as nurturers and mainly as providing support for men who worked to provide for the family. Being physically weaker, women were therefore also perceived being less Capable and requiring the protection and guidance of men. These attitudes have prevailed even in current times when socio-economic changes have made tertiary education necessary, not just for the purpose of providing income earning opportunities with the degrees but also for the potential to contribute to the improvement in the standards of living of individuals, families and communities. These traditional beliefs have been found to foster negative attitudes which limit parents and even community support for the education of the girl child in the tertiary institutions. Identification and examination of these attitudes is necessary before any decision can be made on what should and can be done to bring about change.

However, it is an indisputable fact that without parents support, any efforts to improve girls participation and the number of females in tertiary institutions, will be greatly hampered. It was the opinion of many of those who participated in the study that one of the main reasons for the low enrollment of female children in tertiary institutions is because of this negative attitude. This negative attitude was attributed to traditional socio-cultural beliefs regarding gender roles and abilities. However, the perception of women and their perceived capabilities have remained the same, i.e traditional. Many people therefore have difficulty accepting that there is a need to equip women with the skills and knowledge necessary, through education, to enable them to take up their new roles and function effectively in the modern world. The information gathered from this study, specifically from discussions and interviews with parents, students and lecturers, has under lined the fact that these traditional views of women’s ideal gender roles and the perceptions of their abilities has a negative effect on parents attitude towards the education of female children in tertiary institutions. Parents’ positive attitude towards the education of the female children cannot be over emphasized because positive attitude towards child’s education is important in determining attendance and academic achievement of the child. Hence turn bull (1983) has identified four basic parental roles – parents as educational decision makers; parents as parents; parents as teachers and parents as advocates. Hence we can see that family involvement is strongest predictor of child educational outcome.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In Nigeria, men and women have their own role to play for the benefit of the society. Men are said to be the head of the family while the women took care of the children and house. This practice has been on for generations. If thereby stands as a draw back to girls in many fields especially in education. Education of boys is considered more important because they are made to look after their parents and family, while the girls would be married out. This attitude of parents towards the girl child education is still very common especially in the native parts of Nigeria. Some parents still believe that secondary school education is the highest they can afford and offer their female children because they see them as temporal members of the family. Education of boys is considered more important because they are made to look after their parents and family, while the girls would be married out. This attitude of parents towards the girl child education is still very common especially in the native parts of Nigeria.

Some parents still believe that secondary school education is the highest they can afford and offer their female children because they see them as temporal members of the family. Education of boys is considered more important because they are made to look after they parents and family while the girls are married out. Parents, especially fathers are often concerned about the continuation of their names, because in cases where a wealthy man dies his properties and assets are only shared among his male offspring’s Recent studies have shown that the backwardness of female education in Nigeria is mostly caused by the inability of the parents to fund the education due to financial problems. But thanks to the new system of government which has enforced free education on primary and secondary schools in even down to tertiary institutions. Females should not be denied the opportunity of tertiary education but should be considered as a positive step in building a healthy Nigeria