Street hawking as predictor of enrolment, attendance and retention of students in basic education in Gusau, Zamfara State - Nigeria

Abstract

The study determined street hawking as predictor of enrolment, attendance and retention of students in basic education in Gusau, Zamfara state. Three specific objectives, three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. Survey design was adopted for the study. The researchers sampled 398 out of 40,715 Basic Education students for the study. Structured questionnaire titled Hawking and Enrolment (HSBE) was used for the data collection. The instrument was validated by experts and pilot tested. The data collected was analyzed using Cronbach Alpha. A reliability coefficient of r= 0.87 was obtained. Data were
collected by the researchers assisted by four trained research assistants. The data collected were analyzed using mean scores to answer the research questions while logistic regression was employed in the test the null hypotheses at the significant level of p≤0.05. The study revealed that street hawking has significant influence on enrolment, attendance and retention of basic education students in Zamfara state. The study concluded that inability to address the situation, there will be tendency of increase in the rate of school drop out in the state which will eventually led to increase in the rate of atrocities in the state. Based on these, it was recommended among others that the state government should create support programme such as children feeding, school uniforms and children’s incentives that will limit hawking among school children and encourage parents to enrol their children in schools.