Determinants of Parental Attitudes and Girl-Child Education in Central District, Unguja Zanzibar-Tanzania

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to find out the relationship between parents attitude and girl child education in Central district, Unguja Zanzibar, Tanzania. The objectives were to determine the parent‟s attitudes on girl child education, to establish the level of girl child education and to establish the relationship between parent‟s attitudes and girl child education. The study employed descriptive survey design especially the descriptive correlation strategies. The population of the study consisted of teachers, parents and students of Secondary schools in Central district Unguja Zanzibar based on the sample of 392, the data was collected from 336 respondents as the rate of return. The data was collected using the research questionnaires and the interview guides. The findings of parents attitudes on the girl child education in central district was presented and rated as 2.430 interpreted as poor implying that the overall attitudes by the parents on the girl child are poor. The second objective findings reveal that the overall assessment of the level of girl child education. The study findings further reveal that the mean overall average was 2.459interpreted as Poor. The Pearson‟s linear correlation Coefficient (PLCC) results in table 4.6 indicated that there is no significant relationship between parent‟s attitudes and girl child education in Central district, Zanzibar, Tanzania, since the sig. value (0.392) was far greater than 0.05 and r-value (0.022). The study findings therefore concluded that the state of the parent‟s attitudes regarding the girl child education was bad since most parents gave priority to the boy education as compared to the females, the parent‟s religious and cultural attitudes. The second objective findings concluded that the level of state of the girl child education in terms of enrollment, excellence in examinations and passing of the exams was generally low; these findings imply that the state of the girl child education was inadequate. The study on the third objective indicated that there was no significant relationship between parent‟s attitudes and girl child education. The study recommends that similar research should be conducted on the large sample to correctly measure the change in the attitude of the parents. A research should be done on other areas like attitude of parents towards girl child education and boy child education. Parents should be encouraged to attend adult program and this can be enforced through community leaders.