Factors influencing the academic performance of female students: the case of Kutto Sorfella primary school, sodo Zuria Woreda, southern nation nationalities and peoples Regional state, Ethiopia

Inequality in academic performance exists between females and males in most parts of Ethiopia particularly in rural areas. Many challenges have been made by the government to avoid the gap between two sexes but it has not reached the end goal. So, the objectives of the study were to assess the current status of the academic performance of females in grade seven and eight and to identify the factors that affect the academic performance of females in the study area. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected during the survey from primary as well as secondary sources to achieve the objectives of this research. For this study 130 respondents were selected by simple random techniques and interviewed for the purpose of the study. Structured survey questionnaires, guided interviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were also applied to collect data. To analysis, data qualitative techniques such as tabulation and cross-tabulation, summarization, categorization, computer software; SPSS-16 were used. Computation of descriptive statistic such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation were also carried out. Further, inferential statistics such as T-tests, Chi-square tests, F-tests, and Binary Logit model were also employed to examine and establish statistical relationship between female student performance and 12 independent variables. The results from the simple descriptive statistics indicate that there is gender disparity in academic performance between female and male students in primary school in the study area. The results from the Logit, perception of family, availability of role model, study hours per day, parental education were found significant and positively affect the performance of female students while distance from school was significant and negatively affect their performance. Therefore, in order to overcome these problems some strong commitment and reformation should be done in the study area by parents, students, teachers, local leaders, researchers, policy makers, GOs and NGOs.