CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There was a census that was taken with as aim of getting the proportion of illiteracy between men and women. It was discovered that the ratio was of 9:1 that is nine illiterate women to one man. Prior to the above findings a young researcher by name Osayogie O. (2002) did attest the reasons for this with an acronyms-WEEK meaning.
W – Women
E – Education
E – End in the
K – Kitchen
According to Osayogie (2002), “the parents of old did believe that whatsoever investment as per western education done on a female is a waste since the same females are going to end up in their husband kitchen. This mentality thus affected girls (females) going to school as it all ends up having 99% (ninety-nine percent) of the female gender being a full time illiterate.
With education as an instrument of propagating the values of the society and with the relative success of woman in almost all professions and governmental post, societal activities vis-avis, parent have completely changed to granting female equal social and education right. In the view of Ogwuozo (1992) and Nwabunwene (2000), the persistent imbalance and hindrance to female education stem primarily from:
1. Perception of parents and society as to what should constitute the actual role of women in the society.
2. Parent’s favourite investment on the education of males who will perpetuate the family name rather than their daughters.
3. Inadequate education resources especially in the rural areas. With this the students are cut-off from using educational facilities and services (both human and non human) such as the library, laboratories and guidance services that result into high failure and drop out most especially of the female students.
4. Curriculum content not fully taught to students, which work against their enthusiasm for entry the university to read specialized or professional courses.
5. The labour market and the family size.
In addition, Osayogie (2000) did argue that parents in Nigeria do believe male children are better of than female children, the reason for this, they say: the male children extends the family traits as the family name4 dies not, but the female children gets married and then starts answering the husbands name, with regard to this they believe educating the male child lead the family name to educational stability. The need to give attend to the education of women and girls in our country is not only for them to discover themselves, but because of the increase contribution which education will enable them to make to the economic, social and political development of the nation. In the world of Obe (1971) women’s potential contribution towards their societies may be summarized under three headings these are home making, professional work, and public life.