Socio-Economic Status of Parents and Children’s Schooling in Gambella Region, South West Ethiopia
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Abstract
Children’s schooling and educational outcomes are affected to varying degree by parents’ socio-economic background. However, there was no comprehensive report on the same issue from Gambella Regional State, Southwest Ethiopia. The aim of this study was,therefore, to assess the extent to which socio-economic status of parents influence children's education in the study area. A cross-sectional study (survey) design was employed to collect pertinent data from the entire 73,076 households’ in the region. Pre- tested and validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The socio-demographic data showed that: 50.18% of the total population was males; 21% of the households were headed by females; and about 50% of the population belonged to school age. Farming was the major means of livelihood in nearly more than 80% of the woredas. The regional level estimated average annual income per household was EthBirr 29,866 with very significant variation among woredas. About half of the populations in the region were found illiterate. Of the total 320,341(95.4%) respondents, 41.2% did not go to school at all, and on average, 11% were recorded as dropouts. The highest proportion of non- school attendants (never gone to school) accounted for more than 50% in some woredas of the region. Among the factors that hinder schooling in the region were problem of awareness, low levels of income and household leadership burdens. To curb the existing problems, enhancing enrollment at all levels, maintaining the needy students within the system, awareness development work on the significances of education, enhancing the living conditions of the population through diverse development strategies are recommended.
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Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences. All rights reserved.