Socio-Cultural Factors Influencing Girls’ Retention Rate In Secondary Schools In Qardho District, Karkar Region,somalia

Abstract

Girls’ retention in schools has been found to be a major challenge. Failure to retain girls in secondary schools can be considered as a waste of potential human resources and money spend on them in primary education and time lost in sending them to school in the first place. These girls may become less productive economically, socially and politically. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence the retention of female students in secondary schools in Qardho District, Karkar Region of Puntland state of Somalia. The research objectives were; to establish how early marriages ,roles in Society and domestic labor, Poverty and attitudes of parents towards secondary school education influence girls’ retention rate in secondary schools of Qardho District, Karkar Region, Somalia. In analyzing related literature, the researcher reviewed on the bases of major variables of the study. Descriptive research design was used for the study. The population for the study was both public and private secondary schools in Qardho District, Karkar Region of Puntland State of Somalia. The target population for the study was students, teachers and head teachers. Systematic random sampling technique was used to sample the schools and the respondents for the study. Purposive sampling was used to sample the head teachers and teachers due to their low count. A total of 463 respondents were targeted by the study (constituting 445 students, 13 teacher and 5 head teachers) out of which 215 responded (204 students, 8 teachers and 3 head teachers). Piloting was done to test on the Validity and reliability of the instruments. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics in frequency tables with the help of the Microsoft EXCEL package and Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. The retention rates of female students in the district are still very low. The most significant factor in the district that affects the retention rates of female students is early marriages followed by domestic labor/chores. From the findings it is recommended that intervention measures to improve the retention of female students in secondary schools in Qardho District be made by the government. Further it is recommended that further research can be carried out on the socio cultural factors influencing the performance of male students in the region and the effect of parental guidance on performance of secondary school students in the region.