THE IMPACT OF EARLY MARRIAGE ON RURAL GIRLS’ EDUCATION: IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF WAHIL CLUSTER OF DIRE DAWA, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Education is a vital instrument to enhance progress towards poverty reduction, improve child health, and decrease maternal death, and combat transmittable diseases. However, young girls are robbed of their youth and required to take on roles for which they are not psychologically or physically prepared. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of early marriage on rural girls ‘education in primary schools of Wahil cluster of DDA. A multi stage sampling method was also used. Out of the four clusters, Wahil cluster was purposively selected which consists of nine schools within it. In the second stage, stratified random sampling was used to select representative schools from the cluster. Two schools from each arid and semi- arid, totaling four schools (Wahil, Lage Oda Mirga, Harla and Koriso) were selected. Accordingly, Wahil consisted of 475, Lage Oda Mirga consisted of 322, Harla consisted of 379, and Koriso consisted 355 making a total target of 1, 531 students. The study used both primary and secondary sources. Descriptive statistics specifically percentages, tables and graphs were used to analyze the data. Moreover, the collected information from key informant interview, and different secondary data were analyzed and described through opinion interpretations after sorted out, grouped and organized. The findings of this study indicate that traditional views of the society to girls’ education in the study area are the major factor that deters females schooling. Out of the total sampled married girls of 12, about half 6 (50%) of them are in the age of 17-19 years, and only 4 (33.3%) of them are in the age of above 19 years old. Most females in the study area marry at the age of 13-14. On the basis of the findings of the study and the conclusion drawn, the following recommendations are forwarded: The Educational office in-collaboration with other stakeholders should take protective measures for girls and alleviate the problem within the community; education bureau need to devise intervention mechanisms, such as feeding program and delivering stationary materials, to support female students of low income households to keep them in school. Finally, to increase the participation of females in education the following additional measures are important: Supporting positive policies and public expenditure programs, eliminating forms of discrimination that restricts girls' attendance, providing informal or alternative forms of education. However, since it is practically difficult to exhaust everything in areas of females' participation in primary schools, further study should be carried out to investigate the challenges and come up with possible remedies.