Impact of Adult Education Programmes on the Reduction of Discriminatory Practice Against Women in Ikwerre Ethnic Nationality of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of adult education programmes on the reduction of discriminatory practice against women in Ikwerre Ethnic Nationality of Rivers State, Nigeria. Three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. This research was carried out in Ikwerre ethnic group in River State. The population for this study was 5190 respondents which comprised of 4,950 adult women and 140 adult education facilitators in the four local government areas that make up the Ikwerre ethnic groups. Cluster sampling technique and census were used to engage 840 respondents in the study comprising of 800 adult women and 40 adult education facilitators respectively. The instrument for the study was a self-designed four-point rating scale questionnaire titled “Impact of Adult Education Programmes on Reduction of Discriminatory Practices against Women Questionnaire”.  The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by the researcher’s supervisor and two other experts in the Department of Adult Education and Community Development, Faculty of Education, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. The reliability of the research instrument was established through the test-retest reliability method which gave 0.87 reliability coefficient. Mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the data in relation to the research questions while Z-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that adult education programmes have enlightened the women in the society against discriminatory practices such as female genital mutilation, early female / forced girl child marriage practices, unhealthy widowhood practices, The researcher recommended that governments should pass legislation on the eradication of female genital mutilation in rural communities of Rivers State. This would help to totally eradicate unhealthy mutilation practices in Ikwerre Ethnic nationality, in Rivers State.