Kiki James, Temitope Monyeh, Hassana Shuaibu, Samuel Sunday

Despite considerable efforts to improve school enrolment among children, school attendance and completion rates in SubSaharan Africa remain low. Several barriers have been identified to hinder access to quality education for children in the country, including poverty, religious and cultural factors.

ACE Charity, a non-governmental organization, implemented an alternative form of education among out-of-school children in Northern Nigeria, and received significantly positive reception and high participation from beneficiaries. This research was therefore being conducted to provide information on invisible barriers of school enrolment among out-of-school girls in Northern Nigeria and explore the high level of receptiveness to radio as an alternative form of education among girls in Northern Nigeria.

A qualitative approach was chosen as the research method for this study, with semi-structured interviews with 100 female participants, purposively sampled, were conducted. Inclusion criteria were female participants who were out of school while ACE Radio School was implemented, and participated in ACE Radio School listening groups, or listened to the radio broadcasts through radio. The study showed that poverty and poor quality of government education were major deterrents to school enrolment in the region, while major motivation for partaking in the alternative education were the learning opportunities, the local language of instruction.

The findings highlight that school enrolment will improve if free access to education and high quality of learning is provided to girls living in Northern Nigeria.

Read full paper here: https://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-1122/ijsrp-p13125.pdf