EARLY MARRIAGE AND ITS IMPACT ON GIRL’S EDUCATION IN ABAKALIKI EDUCATION ZONE OF EBONYI STATE

Abstract

This work sought to determine Early Marriage and its Impact on Girl’s Education in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study; a descriptive survey design was adopted. The population of the study was four hundred and forth eight (448) teachers. The researcher used simple random sampling technique to draw the sample for the study. Twenty eight (28) respondents were randomly selected from each of the five (5) selected schools. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The researcher used Test-re-test method to determine the reliability of the instrument, and a reliability coefficient of 0.89 was obtained, using the spearman's rank order (rho). All the copies of the questionnaire were dully completed and returned with no instrument mortality. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive mean statistics (x) to give verifiable answers to the problems and objectives of the research. The findings revealed that early marriage results negatively to the poor academic performances of a girl-child, that early marriage results to school dropout, hinders educational ambition and finally limits the full development of academic potentials of the girlchild in that area. It is recommended that government should enact a law prohibiting parents irrespective of tribe and religion on forcing their female children to get married at tender age when ought to be in school, also map out strategies to encourage female education, there should be public enlightenment campaigns to educate parents on the importance of educating female children as well motivate women on the importance of education through scholarships, bursary award and other kinds of financial assistance. Finally, enact a law through social welfare organization to be out in looking into the cases of violation among girls.