EFFECT OF GROUP COUNSELLING ON THE ATTITUDE OF NOMADIC FULANI MALE PARENTS TOWARDS GIRL-CHILD EDUCATION IN MADAGALI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

This study determined the effect of group counseling on the attitude of nomadic Fulani male parents towards girl-child education in Madagali Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Four objectives were stated and three (3) null hypotheses were tested. Quasiexperimental design was adopted. The population comprised 139 adult male parents from the four nomadic clans in the study area. Twelve male parents were randomly selected from each of the four (4) nomadic clans totaling 48 nomadic male parents. Parents Attitude Towards Girl-Child Education Scale (PATGCES) develop by Dakasku (1998) was adapted. Three (3) stages were used in collecting the data: pre-treatment, treatment and post treatment phases. Independent t-test was used to analyze hypotheses 1 and 2 and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test hypothesis 3. The results were considered at P < 0.05 level. The findings of the study showed that group counseling had a significant effect on changing the attitude of nomadic Fulani male parents towards girl-child education in Madagali Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria. It is further discovered that the age of nomadic male Fulani parents and their clan differences had no significant effect on their attitude toward Girl child education. It is recommended among others that effective guidance and counseling programmes in schools should be introduced right from primary school. Trained counselors should also be posted to the rural communities (nomadic) to enlighten parents on the importance of girl-child education.