Early Marriage and Academic Performance of Divorcees and Widows of Women Centres in Bauchi State, Nigeria

The study investigated early marriage and academic performance of widows and divorced students of Women Centres in Bauchi State. Three research questions, objectives, and research hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. A sample of 256 students was drawn from the population of 802 with the aid of Krejcie and Morgan (1971) table for determining sample size. A research instrument titled Academic Performance Test (APT) was used for data collection which was adjudged to possess content validity by teachers in secondary schools that mark WAEC and NECO in Bauchi State with a reliability ‘r’ index of 0.68 for Mathematics and 0.76 for the English language. The null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. Findings revealed that: there is no significant difference between the academic performance of widow and married students of Women Centre Jama’are, Azare, Misau, and Ningi Bauchi State and also there is a significant difference between the academic performance of divorce and married students of Women Centre Jama’are, Azare, M,isau and Ningi Bauchi State; It was recommended that parents and husbands should encourage their daughters and wives to go back to school while for Divorcees parents should encourage their daughters to acquire knowledge and skills for self-development in women continuing education Keywords: Early marriage, widows, divorcees, and academic performance of students DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-6-03 Publication date: February 28 th 2022