Browsing by Author "Mbaga,Julieth"

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Perceptions of secondary school girls on the influence of traditional cultural practices on school dropout in Bagamoyo district
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2014) Mbaga,Julieth
This study determined the perceptions of secondary school female students of the influence of traditional cultural practices on school dropouts in Bagamoyo District. It specifically, aimed at describing the various traditional cultural practices in the study area; assessing the attitudes of secondary school female students on how traditional cultural practices influence attendance; and assessing social economic factors influencing female students’ attitudes towards traditional cultural practices which lead to school dropout. A cross-sectional research design was employed using a questionnaire and a checklist. This study was conducted in 8 secondary schools in Bagamoyo which were purposively selected due to their high school dropout rates and simple random sampling was used to obtain 144 respondents within schools and later on 16 female dropouts were selected using snowball technique. The total sample size was 160 respondents. Quantitative data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Descriptive statistics that is, frequencies and percentage were obtained in accordance with the objectives of the study. Qualitative data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews were analyzed using structural content analysis. The Likert scale was used to measure attitudes in objective two and the analysis was done through descriptive statistics. Chi-square test was used to find association between socio-economic factors and attitudes of female students in objective three. Results showed that different traditional cultural practices led into girls dropping out of school. These include doing domestic chores, pregnancies, participation in initiation ceremonies, involvement in sexual intercourse, and different traditional cultural practices to ladies. Majority of the female students in the study area have negative attitude towards traditional cultural practices which lead to dropping out of school. On the other hand, participation in the practices was due to the influence of society and parents/guardians. There was also association between socio- economic factors and attitude of students. The study recommends that education stakeholders should discourage traditional cultural practices in the study area which influence girls to drop out of school.