Academic Participation of Female Students in Biology: A Primary School Study from Western Hararghe, Ethiopia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64850/cognitive.v2i1.200Keywords:
Academic Participation, Biology Subject, Female StudentsAbstract
In Ethiopia, the enrollment of females in school is still lower than that of males. Women also struggle greatly in Dabia Primary School to participate in the educational process. this study aims to identify the factors that influence the academic achievement of grade eight female students at Dabia Primary School. A cros sectional study was conducted from to, may 30 to July 01, 2024 on 53 respondents in all, including 36 female students in grade 8 and 17 teachers, were sampled for this study. The students were selected employing simple random selection techniques, while teachers were chosen via purposive sampling. The primary instruments for acquiring data were interviews and questionnaires. Frequency counts, percentages, and mean values were used to examine the data. The study's findings showed that psychological elements (96%) like shyness and concern of what others will think of them were highly rated by both teachers and female pupils. The most detrimental influences were rated as psychological factors (92.5%), sociocultural factors (92.5%), personal factors (53%) such as poor academic backgrounds of students and poor communication skills, and sociocultural factors (92.5%) such as livelihood dependence of the respondents and negative attitudes toward female education and the allocation of household tasks to women.
Downloads
References
Ababa, A. (2017). Ministry of Education. Education Management Information Systems.
Antoninis, M., Alcott, B., Al Hadheri, S., April, D., Fouad Barakat, B., Barrios Rivera, M., . . . Caro Vasquez, D. (2023). Global education monitoring report 2023: Technology in education: A tool on whose terms? UNESCO.
Baumann, F. (2021). The next frontier-human development and the anthropocene: UNDP human development report 2020. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 63(3), 34–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2021.1898908 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2021.1898908
Bealem, T. E., Ferguson, N., Thomas, T. S., Zerfu, T. A., & Bryan, E. (2025). Country profile-Ethiopia: Gender, climate change, and nutrition linkages. International Food Policy Research Institute.
Bedford, K. (2024). Gender and development in the World Bank: An evaluation of the business case for equality. Dalam The Elgar companion to the World Bank (hlm. 227–238). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204780.00032 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204780.00032
Best, J. W., & Kahn, J. V. (2016). Research in education. Pearson Education India.
Booth, R. (2022). Emerging issues for girls' education in East Africa. The K4D Emerging Issues Report, 48, 12–19.
Canton, H. (2021). United nations development programme-UNDP. Dalam The Europa Directory of International Organizations 2021 (hlm. 179–184). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003179900-28 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003179900-28
Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 3, 7.
Dilaram, M. (2025). Global gender equality and the advancement of women's rights: Progress, challenges, and prospects. Journal of New Century Innovations, 89(1), 22–28. https://doi.org/10.64941/cnpg3r65 DOI: https://doi.org/10.64941/cnpg3r65
Elfert, M. (2015). UNESCO, the Faure report, the Delors report, and the political utopia of lifelong learning. European Journal of Education, 50(1), 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12104 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12104
Hopkins, M. (1991). Human development revisited: A new UNDP report. World Development, 19(10), 1469–1473. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(91)90089-Z DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(91)90089-Z
Ji, G. X., Chan, P. W. K., McCormick, A., Won, M., Ali, S., Jimmy, M., . . . Chesal, K. (2024). Scholarly responses to 'UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2024 Pacific Technology in Education: A tool on whose terms?'. International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 23(2), 154–170. https://doi.org/10.70830/iejcp.2302.20369 DOI: https://doi.org/10.70830/iejcp.2302.20369
Ngwaru, J. M. (2013). Breaking the cycle of poverty through early literacy support and teacher empowerment in early childhood education. Bulgarian Comparative Education Society.
Öztemur, H., Karabağ, A., Öcel, M., & Zengin, O. (2024). Exploring the horizons of education: Insights from UNESCO's 2030 agenda. International Journal of Eurasian Education and Culture, 9(25), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.35826/ijoecc.1823 DOI: https://doi.org/10.35826/ijoecc.1823
Reardon, S. F. (2018). The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor. Dalam Social stratification (hlm. 536–550). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429499821-33 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429499821-33
Somoza, S. (2025). Published in 2025 by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in partnership with the World Organization of the Scout Movement. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.
Tawil, S., & Locatelli, R. (2015). Rethinking education: Towards a global common good. UNESCO. https://www.norrag.org/rethinkingeducation-towardsa-global-common-good
Templeton, D. S., & Korchagin, R. (2025). Stratification economics and racial disparities in US K-12 education. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1600820 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1600820
Tesfaye, S., & Berhanu, K. (2015). Improving students' participation in active learning methods: Group discussions, presentations and demonstrations: A case of Madda Walabu University second year tourism management students of 2014. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(22), 29–32.
Tilahun, Y. (2013). Factors affecting academic participation of female students in Harar senior secondary school, eastern Ethiopia [Master’s Thesis, St. Mary's University].
Tsegai, M. (2010). Gender inequalities in the Ethiopian education system. The Ethiopian Journal of Education, 30(2), 63–98.
UNESCO. (2020). Global education monitoring report 2020: Inclusion and education-all means all. United Nations. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54676/JJNK6989
Wrigley, J. (2003). Education and gender equality. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203210574 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203210574
Yamane, Taro. (1967). Statistics: An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Edition, New York: Harper and Row. (n.d.).
Zendeli, E. (2017). The right to education as a fundamental human right. Contemporary Educational Research Journal, 7(4), 158–166. https://doi.org/10.18844/cerj.v7i4.2718 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18844/cerj.v7i4.2718
Downloads
Published
Data Availability Statement
The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Wondimagegn Wolde Eba, Mokonin Tensaw, Daniel Atle, Muhidin Tahir (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In submitting the manuscript to the journal, the authors certify that:
- They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal.
- That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- That its publication has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
- They agree to the following license and copyright agreement.
License and Copyright Agreement
Authors who publish with Cognitive Insight in Education agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
