The Effects of Traditional Ceremonies and Early Marriages on Girls’ Access to Secondary Education in Kilolo District, a Case of Public Secondary Schools

This study aimed to explore the effects of traditional ceremonies and early marriages on girls’ access to secondary education in Kilolo District Council; A case of public secondary schools. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The cross-sectional design was employed to the study. The population of this study was secondary school students in the selected wards of Kilolo District; teachers, ward educational officers, and ward executive officers as key informants. A random sample technique used to randomly select of 108 respondents who were secondary school’s students while purposive sampling technique adopted to the selected 12 key informants for this study. A questionnaires, interview and Focused Group Discussions (FGD) were used to explore information from the respondents. The Quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive through the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 while Qualitative data were divided into themes and then subjected to content analysis to supplement quantitative data. The study findings revealed that, lowering academic performance, increase number of school droppers and lowering attendance were among the effects of traditional ceremonies and early marriages on girls’ access to secondary education at Kilolo District. Basing on the study findings, it is recommended that, the government and other stakeholders should take appropriate actions to those people who forced girl’s students to engaged in traditional ceremonies and early marriage with enforcement of law relating with the particular incidents, while at the same time, education on the effects of harmful cultural practicing including early marriage should be disseminating to all over the societies so as to reduce the persistence of the problem with advocacy for girls right in accessing education at all level.