| Abstract: | The purpose of the study was to identify factors affecting academic participation of female
student in Harar Senior Secondary school. Following school records and some informal sources
the researcher hypothesized that academic participation of student in the area is highly related
with gender issues and female students academic participation is not proportional compared to
their male counterparts. This study conducted in Harar senior secondary school. It took 200
female students as samples which were drawn only from grades nine and ten. The samples were
selected using purposive non-probability sampling technique based on their proportion and the
researcher used random sampling method to draw the actual sample size. As a research tool
questioner, key informant interviews and other interviews, FGDs (focus group discussions),
observation, SWOT analysis and document analysis are used. Both qualitative and quantitative
surveys used. The researcher introduced the overall concept of the research; the researchable
problem introduced according to the objective of the study. To support the research area, the
researcher tried to review various literature and discussed on the right of girls to education,
girls access to education, gender disparity in education, girls drop out in education, impact of
gender gaps in education, importance of girl’s education and the like. The researcher found that
there were factors which affected academic participation of female students, such as
psychological factors (including motivation and level of aspiration of students, self-reliance of
the students, lack of guidance and counseling service, and income of their families); personal
factors, such as educational background of a student’s family, study hours, use of stimulants;
socio-cultural factors, like social safety, attitude of society towards female education and sexual
harassments against female students. While analyzing the academic participation and
performance, the ratio of total male students to total female students in the years 2007 to 2011
was approximately found to be 4:3 implying the rate of enrolment of male students is dominating
that of female where as the rate of dropouts of female students was found to be slightly higher
than that of male students. Therefore, it is conclude that there exists gender disparity in
academic participation at Harar Senior Secondary School. |
