IMPACTS OF STREET HAWKING ON RETENTION OF PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN KONTAGORA METROPOLIS OF NIGER STATE-NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper investigated street hawking and the attendant impacts on retention of public primary school pupils in Kontagora metropolis. Two research objectives were formulated to determine the factors responsible for street hawking in Kontagora Metropolis and to ascertain the impacts of street hawking on the education of secondary school-age students in Kontagora Metropolis. This was followed by two research questions and a null hypothesis generated to guide the study. Survey design was used to conduct this study, with 352sample of school-age street hawkers as well as teachers from five (5) Public Primary Schools in Kontagora, using multistage, proportionate and random sampling techniques. While 3% was calculated to get the sample of the pupils, 20% was calculated to get the sample of the teachers. Data was collected using a questionnaire titled ‘Impacts of Street Hawking on Public Primary School Age Drop-out in Kontagora Metropolis (ISHPPSADKM) and analysed using mean score. The Findings show that there is a significant relationship between street hawking and the propensity to drop out of school in Kontagora metropolis. The paper concluded that, without effective interventions by government and stakeholders in the knowledge industry, the cycle of poverty and undereducation is likely to continue, adversely affecting subsequent generations. It is recommended among others that government and stakeholders in the knowledge industry provide employment opportunity as well counselling services to affected children to see how to integrating them into the school system; providing Vocational and technical training to serve as motivator to children of primary school age and re-orientating parents on the need to uphold the family value and the importance of child training in the society.