THE EFFECT OF FORMAL EDUCATION ON NIGERIAN WOMEN’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS FAMILY PLANNING
ABSTRACT
The study attempted to investigate the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning in Lagos State. The study also reviewed relevant and extensive literatures under sub-headings. The descriptive research survey design was employed in this study in order to assess the opinions of the respondents with the application of questionnaire and the sampling technique. A total of 160 (one hundred and sixty) respondents were selected as samples representing the entire population of the study. Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested in this study using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the independent t-test statistical tools at 0.05 level of significance. At the end of the analyses, the following results were obtained: 1.Hypothesis one revealed that adult educational programmes will significantly influence family planning among couples. 2.Hypothesis two found that the socio-economic status of couples will have significant effect on their level of family planning. 3.Hypothesis three result shows that religious belief of couples will significantly have relationship with their level of family planning. 4.Hypothesis four show that there is a significant difference between the attitude of the educated couples towards family planning and those who are illiterates. All the null hypothesis were rejected. This shows that adult educational programmes has significance influence on the level of family planning among couples in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education can be described as a dynamic activity which involves an orderly, deliberate and sustained effort to develop knowledge and skills (Olusakin, 1998). As Awoniyi (1999) puts it, formal education is a process by which the human mind develops through learning at school in stages from pre-primary through primary, secondary to tertiary (university) institution. The present socio-economic situation in Nigeria has made it obvious that the women must be given sound, formal education as their male counterparts are given.
According to Lai (1995), in the olden days, a woman had little or no status as a person in her own right. In the Nigerian society, women were viewed as their husbands’ properties, and as such, had no say in the affairs of their own home. The women’s roles were basically those of taking care of their husbands and their children, their in-laws, the family compound, child-bearing and child rearing. Also, her place was believed to be naturally, in the kitchen. However, only few people would deny the functional roles of women in the larger society. Even through the average Nigerian woman still performs her basic traditional roles as a daughter to her parents, sister to her siblings, wife to her husband, mother to her children, daughter or sister inlaw to her husband’s family, she is economically viable, she contributes financially to the up keep of the family.
