An Assessment of the Educational Attainment and Formal Employment Status of Mothers Who Married Before Age 18 in Zaria Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria
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Innocent Emerenini Opara, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Science Education, Federal University of Education, Zaria, Kaduna, State, Nigeria.
The paper assessed and quantified the educational attainment and employment status of mothers who got married before age 18 in Zaria Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria, with the view to generating data for policy and planning. The study relied on area level data obtained through the administration of 300 questionnaires in the study area of which. 276 questionnaires were returned and found adequate for the analysis indicating a completion rate of 92.0%. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the questionnaires. The concepts of education, early child marriage, the role of female education and formal employment access to both the mother, household and immediate community are well articulated. The result shows that less than one-fifth of mothers continued with their educational pursuits on getting married, and mothers who got married before age 18 have both alarmingly low levels of education attainment as more than half do not have any formal education, as well as limited access to formal employment as less than one-tenth is engaged in wage employment. The paper recommends the need for government to creating the awareness among parents that girls who marry before they turn 18 are less educated and hence, less empowered for formal sector job and concludes that any government initiative at widening the educational attainment and formal employment status of the female folk in the study area would be partially successful if early female child marriage endemic is not comprehensively tackled.
Female Child Marriage, Female Educational Attainment, Female Formal Employment Status
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