ROLE OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN ENHANCING GIRL CHILD EDUCATION IN CONFLICT-AFFECTED AREAS OF ADAMAWA STATE

This paper investigated the role of parental involvement in enhancing girl-child education in Conflict-Affected areas of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was employed in this study. Data was collected from 300 parents sampled using a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation. The finding reveals that the main challenges to effective parental support in helping girls continue their education within the conflict areas are economic struggles, insecurity, cultural norms, frequent displacements, and the inaccessibility of educational facilities, with a grand mean of 4.18 (SD = 0.84), which shows a high impact. The findings furthermore suggest that, among others, economic challenges, insecurity, cultural norms, frequent displacements, and inaccessibility of education facilities are the significant factors that hinder parents from being involved in supporting girls' education in the conflict-affected areas, with a grand mean of 4.18 and a standard deviation of 0.84, thus underscoring the strong effects of these barriers. The findings show that parental involvement improves girls' academic performance and retention in conflict-affected areas, as evidenced by large improvements in overall achievements, motivation, and retention, with a grand mean of 4.05 (SD = 0.94). The study concludes that economic and security interests, cultural barriers, and access to education are significant obstacles to girls' education. Recommendations include, among other things, that the government should invest in family support, educational infrastructure, and cultural sensitivity programs to make a difference in girls' education in these challenging contexts.