The effects of parental and community attitudes on girls’ education and academic progress in Kuria community in Tarime District
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Date
2010
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Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The effects of parental and community attitudes towards girls’ education have adversely affected women’s development in different Tanzanian communities. This study investigated the effects of parental and community attitudes towards girls’ education in Tarime district, Mara region. The respondents were drawn from the urban and rural areas of Tarime district. The data were collected through questionnaire, interview, observation and focus group discussion. A sample of 187 respondents consisting of 40 parents, 20 teachers, 120 students, 6 head of schools and 1 district secondary education officer participated. Data was analysed qualitatively through content analysis and quantitatively using SPSS version 15.0 manual.
The findings revealed that the majority of older parents had negative attitudes towards educating girls, especially beyond primary education level. They preferred to send boys to school and to marry off school going girls. The findings also revealed that the majority of male teachers had negative attitude towards girls’ education due to the belief that they had to struggle to earn a living. They encouraged boys to work harder in studies while at the same time discouraged girls from working hard through statements they usually made in the classrooms. Furthermore, the results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in boys’ and girls’ attitude towards girls’ education by gender and location. The findings also indicated that parents’, male teachers’ and male students’ attitudes towards girls’ education was a major contributing to girls’ low enrolment in secondary schools, dropout rates and poor academic performance. Parents reluctantly sent girls to secondary schools, some of them were ready to marry off school going girls. The majority of parents did not encourage girls to work hard in their studies instead they assigned them heavy domestic chores. The study recommends that parents and the community members in general should be educated about the importance of educating a girl child. The negative attitudes of parents and the community in general should be changed by presenting some successful women in the community as role models.
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Keywords
Women, Education, Kuria community, Tarime district, Kuria (African People), Tanzania
Citation
Tawi, Y (2010) The effects of parental and community attitudes on girls’ education and academic progress in Kuria community in Tarime District. Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Available at http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/search.aspx?