Impact of Poverty on Educational Access for Out of School Children in North Central Zone, Nigeria

Abstract

Education prepares children for future prospects and economic empowerment by fortifying children with
knowledge and skills needed for total and general development of the individuals and the society at large.
This paper examined the impact of poverty on educational access for out of school children in North Central
Zone, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study which involves the retrieving of data from
selected respondents representing the entire population comprising of teachers and parents in the North
Central zone of Nigeria. The sample size of 800 respondents was selected from the 2 sample states drawn
through simple random sampling techniques. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated
guided the study. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research strategies in analyzing the
data. Data was gathered through questionnaire titled ‘Out of School Children Questionnaire’ (OSCQ). The
research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation scores and independent t test
statistic was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings revealed significant
impact of poor feeding on educational access for out-of- school children in North Central Zone, Nigeria.
Thus, Feeding has strong impact on school readiness. It was however recommended among many that
school feeding programmes should be initiated by state governments in the North Central States in order
to reduce the rate of hunger among young children so that more out of school children can have access to
good education.