AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF RADIO AS A TOOL FOR CREATING AWARENESS ON GIRL CHILD EDUCATION IN IKOT EKPENE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGES
Fly leaf
Title Page – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – iv Acknowledgements – – – – – v
Table of Contents – – – – – vi-viii
List of Tables – – – – – – ix
Abstract – – – – – – – x

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study – — – – – 1-7
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – 7-8
1.3 Objectives of the Study – – – – – 8-9
1.4 Research Questions – – – – – 9
1.5 Significance of the Study – – – – – 10
1.6 Scope of the Study – – – – – 11

1.7 Limitations of the Study – – – – – 11
1.8 Definition of Term s – – – – – 12
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Concept of Education – – – – 13-22
The Concept of a Child and Girl-Child
Factor Responsible for the Neglect of
Girl-Child Education in Nigeria
Cultural Issues Influencing the Level of
Involvement of Girls in Education
The Media and Girl-Child Education
Crucial Role Media Play in Creating Awareness
Theoretical Framework – – – – 29-32
Review of Studies – – – – 32-33

3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research design – – – – – – 34
3.2 Population of the Study – – – – – 34
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling Procedure – – – 35
3.4 Instrumentation for Data Collection – – 35
3.5 Validity and Reliability of Research Instrument 35-36
3.6 Method of Data Analysis – – – – 36

4.0 DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.1 Data Presentation – – – – 37-45
4:2 Discussion of Findings – – – – 45-49

5.0 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary – – – – – – 50-51
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – 52
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – 52-53
References
Appendices

LIST OF TABLES
TABLE TITLE PAGES
Table 1: Gender distribution of respondents – – 37
Table 2: Age distribution of respondents- – 38
Table 3: Marital Status distribution of respondents – 38
Table 4: Occupation of respondents – – – 39
Table 5: Education Level distribution of respondents 40
Table 6: Responses to questionnaire question six – 40
Table 7: Responses questionnaire question seven – 41
Table 8: Responses to questionnaire question eight – 41
Table 9: Responses to questionnaire question nine – 42
Table 10: Responses to questionnaire question ten – 43
Table 11: Responses to questionnaire question eleven – 43
Table 12: Responses to questionnaire question twelve – 44
Table 13: Responses to questionnaire question thirteen 45

ABSTRACT
This research work focused on the Audience perception as a tool for creating awareness on Girl child education in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area. To accomplish this research work five objectives and five research questions were structured. The study used survey research design simple random sampling techniques used to draw the sample size of 400. The population for the study was 46,522 which was the estimated population of Adatak and Mbiaso. The questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. Findings from the study revealed that radio is very effective in creating awareness on Girl child education and has impacted positively on the rural population of Mbiaso and Adatak. In view of the findings it was recommended that government should make laws mandating parents to send their female children to school it was also recommended that early marriage should be discouraged.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Education is a human right that should be given to all human beings. There are lots of international human right instruments that provide for education as a fundamental human right, which include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). International convention of Economic, Social and Cultural Right (1960), etc, Research has also shown that schooling improves productivity, health and reduces negative features of life, such as child labour. This is why there has been a lot of emphasis, particularly in recent times, for all citizen to have access to basic education. It has however been established by researchers that improving female education is crucial for national development.
Education is a basic human right and has been recognized as such, since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, numerous human right treaties have reaffirmed these rights and have supported entitlement to free compulsory primary education for all children. In 1990 for example, the Education for All (EFA), communication was launched to belonging to ensure that by 2015, all children, particularly girls, those in difficult circumstance and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality. According to UNESCO report about 90 million children are not in school and majority of them are girls. Most girls do not have access to education despite the fact that it is their rights.
The girl-child is often sad led with responsibilities, which may make her not to have access to quality education. It is true that many governments make provision for the education of their citizens, but the provisions, most of the time, do not take into cognizance the peculiarities of the girls. In that case, the girl-child may not have access to education, which is a fundamental human right. Research has shown that millions of girls do not have access to schools despite the concerted efforts to push the cause forward. Okeke, Nzewi and Njoku (2008) identify child labour, poverty and lack of sponsorship, quest for wealth, bereavement truancy, broken home, engagement of children and house helps, as the clog in the wheel of girl’s access to education.
The right to education, which is a fundamental human right, frequently denied to girls in some African countries. The then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, stated that, in Africa, when families have to make a choice due to limited resources of either a girl or a boy child, it is always the boy that is chosen to attend school. In Akwa Ibom, many girls are prevented from getting the education entitle to them because families often send their daughters out to work at a young age so that they can get the additional income that may need to exist beyond subsistence level and finance the education of sons.
The role of mass communication for creating awareness on the need to bring and keep the female child in school, so that she can get at least a functional education, cannot be over emphasized. This is believed to be invaluable in helping to achieve the education for all (EFA) goals that seek to among other things achieve gender equality in education by 2015 (Hodges, 2011). The radio is considered to be one of the most powerful information dissemination medium available to the mass communicator. It is considered to be one of the most effective for development communication purposes especially in rural areas (Ojebode 7 & Adegbola, 2007).
This is because radio waves are easily accessible and the radio is believed to be the cheapest technology in terms of first and maintenance costs. Daniel Lerner cited in seers (1997).
This study therefore seeks to examine the role of the radio broadcast programme as a tool for creating awareness on the developmental issues pertaining to girl child education in Akwa Ibom Nigeria. This is because development communication scholars believe that several aspects of national development revolve around proper and adequate used of relevant radio broadcast messages (McAnany & Jamison, 1987). An important consideration here is how the Audience Perceive and are influenced by the radio messages. It would be important to know what they used the messages for in light of the uses and gratification model (a subset of audience theory) (Lull, 2010) or if they had a preferred, oppositional or negotiated disposition to the broadcast messages as another audience theory, the reception model suggest (Hall, 2010).
Radio is the chosen medium because it is relatively cheap and available, there also an adequate radio broadcasting infrastructure in Nigeria which has existed since the 1940’s (Umar, 2007) also, and most importantly, the Northern audience is considered to be essentially a listening audience (Yusuf, 2003). As a rural-oriented medium, the radio is believed to have a multiplier effect as A tells B what they heard on radio and so on.

Statement of the Problem
The mass media particularly the radio is the most important medium of creating awareness on so many issues such as education (Moemeka, 2011). Radio therefore is an indispensable medium for rural development. Some of the obvious advantages of radio over other mediums of information exchange are that it is portable, cheap, and accessible and the signals can be transmitted over a long distance.
In this instance therefore, development experts in the field of education are beginning to realize this advantages and are beginning to utilize them. Radio is a useful medium especially in creating awareness about health. Health communication is no longer kept at the back door but creating awareness on health related matters is gradually gaining momentum. The populace no longer relies on information from health officials for their wellbeing, but they seek information from the media on issues relating to their health. People seek information on so many other issues such as education especially as it pertains to the female gender.
Also, the millennium development goal outlines the development of girl-child education as a very important issue and it is on the front burner of all government policies and objectives. Education is a catalyst for growth, but unfortunately, the girl-child education in Northern Nigeria has been publicized and given lackadaisical attitude by the government. The Dakar Framework on Girl-Child education agreed to among other things to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieve gender equality in education by 2015. This document sets out what is also known as the Education for All (EFA) goals, with a focus on ensuring that girls get full and equal access to good quality basic education. This study therefore seeks to establish if the radio programme has been able to significantly improve awareness on girl child education or not.