FACTORS AFFECTING FEMALE STUDENTS’ ACADAMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SOME SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF AWBARE WOREDA, ETHIOPIA SOMALI REGION

Education is a tool to enable citizens to make all rounded participation in development process. The participation of females in socio-economic programs especially depends on their educational background. Educating girls and women is critical to achieve the benefits as well as the improvement in the areas of health, fertility and nutrition. Thus, females must be treated equally with males to attain educational access, which is necessary to increase their participation in different development programs. This study was meant to investigate factors affecting female students’ academic achievement in some selected secondary schools of Awbare Woreda in Ethiopia Somali region. A total of 200 grade 10 female students were selected by using available sampling from three purposively chosen government secondary schools. In addition, purposively chosen female teachers (N=6), school principals (N=3), Parents and Teachers Associations’ (N=7) and Woreda Education Officials (N=2) were respondents of the study. Three data gathering instruments, viz: questionnaire, interviews and Focus Group Discussions were used. The validity and reliability of the data gathering tools were duly checked. Content validity was checked by thesis supervisors and that of reliability (internal consistence) was estimated ( = 0.86) by using Cronbach alpha at 0.05 confidence level. The collected data were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were employed to analyze quantitative data, whereas descriptions and conceptualizations were used to analyze qualitative data. The analysis of data revealed the following findings. The socio-economic (such as low income level of parents) and socio-cultural (such as early marriage, female genital mutilation, intensive house chores) factors; school-related factors (such as lack of:proper guidance and counseling, special supports, girls club and affirmative action’s; awareness creating movements; role model female teachers), personal factors (like low motivation of females to participate in academic and co-curricular activities in their schools) and parents’ educational backgrounds (most of them being illiterate), all in one way or the other have negatively affected the academic achievement of the female students in the study area. Thus, it is recommended that schools, in collaboration with other concerned bodies, should organize awareness creating workshops about female education and challenges they are facing in their schooling; guidance and counseling and affirmative action should be thought by schools, role model teachers should be employed in secondary schools.