The Effect of Formal Education on Nigerian Women’s Attitude Towards Family Planning

The Effect of Formal Education on Nigerian Women’s Attitude Towards Family Planning

Abstract of The Effect of Formal Education on Nigerian Women’s Attitude Towards Family Planning

The study attempted to investigate the effect of formal education on Nigerian women’s attitude towards family planning in Lagos State. The study also reviewed relevant and extensive literatures under sub-headings. The descriptive research survey design was employed in this study in order to assess the opinions of the respondents with the application of questionnaire and the sampling technique. A total of 160 (one hundred and sixty) respondents were selected as samples representing the entire population of the study. Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested in this study using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the independent t-test statistical tools at 0.05 level of significance. At the end of the analyses, the following results were obtained: 1.Hypothesis one revealed that adult educational programmes will significantly influence family planning among couples. 2.Hypothesis two found that the socio-economic status of couples will have significant effect on their level of family planning. 3.Hypothesis three result shows that religious belief of couples will significantly have relationship with their level of family planning. 4.Hypothesis four show that there is a significant difference between the attitude of the educated couples towards family planning and those who are illiterates. All the null hypothesis were rejected. This shows that adult educational programmes has significance influence on the level of family planning among couples in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State.

Chapter One of The Effect of Formal Education on Nigerian Women’s Attitude Towards Family Planning

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Education can be described as a dynamic activity which involves an orderly, deliberate and sustained effort to develop knowledge and skills (Olusakin, 1998). As Awoniyi (1999) puts it, formal education is a process by which the human mind develops through learning at school in stages from pre-primary through primary, secondary to tertiary (university) institution. The present socio-economic situation in Nigeria has made it obvious that the women must be given sound, formal education as their male counterparts are given.

According to Lai (1995), in the olden days, a woman had little or no status as a person in her own right. In the Nigerian society, women were viewed as their husbands’ properties, and as such, had no say in the affairs of their own home. The women’s roles were basically those of taking care of their husbands and their children, their in-laws, the family compound, child-bearing and child rearing. Also, her place was believed to be naturally, in the kitchen. However, only few people would deny the functional roles of women in the larger society. Even through the average Nigerian woman still performs her basic traditional roles as a daughter to her parents, sister to her siblings, wife to her husband, mother to her children, daughter or sister inlaw to her husband’s family, she is economically viable, she contributes financially to the up keep of the family.

According to Adiele (2000), the education of the girl-child was not a common phenomenon in the traditional Nigerian society before independence. In fact, her birth would not attract so much celebration as that of the male-child, and depending on the number of female children the mother had given birth to before her, the birth of an additional girl-child could cause her mother her marriage. This is still a major problem in some homes even among educated men.

Education should be considered as a great line of defence for women faced with life threatening situations that traditional life-styles perpetuate. It opens the door to a lot of choices that are not found by tradition (Nwagwu, 1996). Grange (1997) posits that education encourages shaping one’s destiny. The situation of the educated Nigerian woman steps up beyond the confines of motherhood and enhances the quality of life in her family.

Therefore, incessant child-bearing places a woman in a very weak position physically, economically and psychologically, yet barrenness is viewed as a curse in the Nigerian society due to high infantile mortality, the capacity to breed was much valued but advances in the field of medicine have greatly increased the survival rate among both infants and adults. According to Onyeanwu (2001), the incessant child-bearing is therefore, no longer necessary, instead, it poses great danger to the health of the mother and also increased family size that cannot be supported with the family resources, especially now that the Nigerian economy has nose-dived and the resultant effect of unemployment among men in the society.

Therefore, to improve the living condition of Nigerian families, the life of the women who are the cornerstone of every household should be improved and the regulation of the size of the regulation of the size of the size of the regulation of the size of the nuclear family, through family planning, cannot be overemphasied (Lai, 1990).

There has been a lot of discrimination against the female gender. In fact people just see them as breeding machines, in spite of the availability of family planning. The dissemination of appropriate and relevant information would lead to the acquisition of knowledge skills and women empowerment. This can help in breaking the intractable poverty cycle which many Nigerian families have come to be associated with due to ignorance of family planning devices and the attitude of many women towards the application of such devices.

According to Halsall (1997), if women’s health and status remain poor, if their access to land and other facilities continue to be limited and if they continue to be held down by ill-timed or unwanted pregnancies, then the societal development would be retarded.

Theoretical Framework

Family planning refers to the services offered to educate men and women about family life and the encouragement given to them to achieve their wishes with regards to the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, securing desired pregnancies, spacing of pregnancies and limiting the number of children in the interest of overall family and the family socio-economic status (Enudi, 1986).

According to Amaechi (2003), the Federal Government released a National Policy on Population for development, unity, progress and self-reliance in 1988 included as part of the policy statement was the promotion of awareness among citizens of this country of population problems and the effect of rapid population growth on development and also the provision to every one of the necessary information and education on the value of reasonable family size, the individual family and the future of the nation on achieving self-reliance.

Ajuzie (2000) theorizes that the value of family planning on the stability and the well being of the family need to be taught and the message should reach every woman since we practice the patriarchal family system because some want to oppose the idea of family planning and since men are considered as the head of the family, the decisions regarding the family size and child spacing cannot be taken by the woman alone. The government should not only design but take conscious effort to see to the implementation of enlightenment and educative programme regarding family planning, some of which are:

1.            Vaginal douche

2.            Diaphragm with cream

3.            Cream or jelly alone

4.            Use of condom

5.            Calendar safe period calculation

6.            Intra-urine device (I.U.D.)

7.            Use of pills

8.            Vasectomu

9.            Bilateral tubal ligation (BTL)

Each of these methods according to Anyanwu (2004) has its own advantages and disadvantages which should be clearly understood before a choice is made.