ABSTRACT

This study assessed The Effect of Child Marriage on the Academic Performance of the Girl Child in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses were formulated for the study.

The study adopted descriptive survey research design in sampling the opinions of senior secondary students in the study area. The population of the study was 856 female senior secondary students in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Through simple random sampling technique, 100 respondents of the population were selected. The instrument used in this study for the collection of data is the questionnaire. A questionnaire entitled “The Effect of Child Marriage on the Academic Performance of the Girl Child in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State”. The data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

The findings from analyzed data show that the effect of child marriage significantly affects academic performance of girl child and that there is a significant relationship between child marriage and academic performance of girl child.Based on the findings, some recommendations were made which include: relevant government bodies/agencies should ensure that policies are put in place to discourage early marriage of the girl child, federal and state ministry of education should endeavor to enlighten the general populace through advert and jingles on various media platform of the dangers inherent in early marriage for the girl child.