A Critical Review of Unwanted Pregnancy and Secondary School Female Students' Education in Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

Unwanted pregnancy is observed to be a factor for setback in education and a socio-economic challenge, likewise a serious health problem among senior secondary school female students in Ilorin, Nigeria. It seems that many teenagers experience sex at experimental level and that shows that students may have been exposed to contraceptives while they are at school. And for many female students, sexual intercourse results in unwanted pregnancies. In respect of this statement, this study critically reviewed unwanted pregnancy and secondary school female students' education in Ilorin, Nigeria. The design used in this research work is a descriptive survey. The population of the study consists of all teachers and female students in all the seventy-seven senior secondary schools in Ilorin, Nigeria,while the target sample comprised teachers and female students from the twentyeight (28) selected senior secondary schools in Ilorin. Meanwhile, five (5) teachers and fifteen (15) female students were randomly selected from each of the twenty-eight (28) selected senior secondary schools in Ilorin which totaled one hundred and forty (140) teachers and four hundred and twenty (420) female students. Simple random sampling techniques was adopted to make the sample.A questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents.The descriptive statistics of mean was used to answer the three (3) research questions generated in the study. The findings revealed that incorrect information obtained from peers/friends and media ranked 1st, while low socio-economic status (e.g. poverty and unemployment), lack of knowledge about sexuality, peer pressure (e.g. engaging in sexual activities to be accepted, examples portrayed by the media (e.g. sexual conduct of movies stars on TV) and risk-taking behaviour (e.g. drug use promotes irresponsible sex activities) ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5thand 6th respectively. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that parents and teachers should make home and school environments protective enough to save the children from exposure to negative societal influences. Also, the government should provide enabling environment for the students who are victims of unwanted pregnancy to further their studies through distance learning. Based on the findings and recommendations,it is suggested that further studies be carried out in other parts of the country, especially in the rural areas as the locale of this study was a city. If this is done, it will confirm or refute the findings.