AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF RADIO AS A TOOL FOR CREATING AWARENESS ON GIRL CHILD EDUCATION IN IKOT EKPENE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
ABSTRACT
This research work focused on the Audience perception as a tool for creating awareness on Girl child education in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area. To accomplish this research work five objectives and five research questions were structured. The study used survey research design simple random sampling techniques used to draw the sample size of 400. The population for the study was 46,522 which was the estimated population of Adatak and Mbiaso. The questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. Findings from the study revealed that radio is very effective in creating awareness on Girl child education and has impacted positively on the rural population of Mbiaso and Adatak. In view of the findings it was recommended that government should make laws mandating parents to send their female children to school it was also recommended that early marriage should be discouraged.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Education is a human right that should be given to all human beings. There are lots of international human right instruments that provide for education as a fundamental human right, which include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). International convention of Economic, Social and Cultural Right (1960), etc, Research has also shown that schooling improves productivity, health and reduces negative features of life, such as child labour. This is why there has been a lot of emphasis, particularly in recent times, for all citizen to have access to basic education. It has however been established by researchers that improving female education is crucial for national development.
Education is a basic human right and has been recognized as such, since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, numerous human right treaties have reaffirmed these rights and have supported entitlement to free compulsory primary education for all children. In 1990 for example, the Education for All (EFA), communication was launched to belonging to ensure that by 2015, all children, particularly girls, those in difficult circumstance and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality. According to UNESCO report about 90 million children are not in school and majority of them are girls. Most girls do not have access to education despite the fact that it is their rights.
The girl-child is often sad led with responsibilities, which may make her not to have access to quality education. It is true that many governments make provision for the education of their citizens, but the provisions, most of the time, do not take into cognizance the peculiarities of the girls. In that case, the girl-child may not have access to education, which is a fundamental human right.
Research has shown that millions of girls do not have access to schools despite the concerted efforts to push the cause forward. Okeke, Nzewi and Njoku (2008) identify child labour, poverty and lack of sponsorship, quest for wealth, bereavement truancy, broken home, engagement of children and house helps, as the clog in the wheel of girl’s access to education.
The right to education, which is a fundamental human right, frequently denied to girls in some African countries. The then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, stated that, in Africa, when families have to make a choice due to limited resources of either a girl or a boy child, it is always the boy that is chosen to attend school. In Akwa Ibom, many girls are prevented from getting the education entitle to them because families often send their daughters out to work at a young age so that they can get the additional income that may need to exist beyond subsistence level and finance the education of sons.
The role of mass communication for creating awareness on the need to bring and keep the female child in school, so that she can get at least a functional education, cannot be over emphasized. This is believed to be invaluable in helping to achieve the education for all (EFA) goals that seek to among other things achieve gender equality in education by 2015 (Hodges, 2011). The radio is considered to be one of the most powerful information dissemination medium available to the mass communicator. It is considered to be one of the most effective for development communication purposes especially in rural areas (Ojebode 7 & Adegbola, 2007).