Value perceptions of parents on formal education for the girl child in light of cultural practices among the Abakuria of South Nyanza in Kenya.

Abstract

The Abakuria have for a long time accorded minimal attention to the education of the girl child, as specific gender and cultural practices in the community continue to affect her educational attainment, and yet this is a neglected area of study. Low educational attainment among the girls in Kuria district appears to be related to the value that the parents and the wider community place on formal education for the girl child. The purpose of this study was to understand parental value perceptions of formal education for the girl child, in light of the cultural practices of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriage in the Abakuria community. A qualitative research design employing the ethnographic tradition was used for the study. Data was collected through face-to-face open-ended interviews. The twenty four participants interviewed in the research were drawn from Mabera division of Kuria district. Voice files recorded during the interviews were transcribed and the data was analyzed. This study established that among Abakuria families, there is a significant adherence to the Christian faith, which advocates values that are contrary to the traditional practice of FGM. The committed Christian parents have therefore abandoned FGM and do not put their daughters through it. Their daughters were also observed to have a high educational attainment. FGM however, continues to be practiced among those families where parents are nominal Christians, and families where parents are non-Christians, and who still value this cultural practice. The age of girls undergoing FGM presently was found to have dropped by at least ten years from what it was in the traditional setting and children as young as eight years are undergoing FGM. The traditional purpose of FGM also appears to have undergone change, and most of the girls currently do not get married soon after FGM as in the past. Rather, most of them return to school, and it would appear that formal schooling is what keeps them from early marriage. Many girls however still drop out of school at various stages after returning to school, which greatly compromises their chances of a high educational attainment. Besides the cultural factors, limited financial resources to pay for secondary and higher education for girls also emerged as a contributing factor to the low educational attainment among girls in this community. In light of the various subjects examined, and concerns arising from the study, the researcher includes some recommendations on possible ways of dealing with the cultural practices of FGM and early marriage, in order to provide assistance to raise the educational attainment of the girl child in Kuria district. In order to obtain a holistic picture concerning the education of Kuria girls, several recommendations that appeal for further research were made. Among them, research on non-cultural factors that affect the educational attainment of the Kuria girl child was recommended.