Examining the Effect of Street Hawking on Academic Performance of Female Students in Sokoto State Secondary Schools

This study investigated the effect of street hawking on academic performance of female students in Sokoto state secondary schools. The study adopted descriptive survey research of correlational type to probe the opinions of the participants regarding relationship between street hawking and academic performance of female students in Sokoto state secondary schools. The study population consisted of 557 participants (female students) and the study take a sample of 234 out of 557 participants using Creswell (2012) table for determining sample size. The study employed convenience and simple random sampling techniques to carry out the study. The study used the following two (2) researcher-designed rating scale to collect data from the participants which include, Street Hawking among Female Students Rating Scale (SHFSRS) and Academic Performance Rating Scale (APRS) to collect data. The two questionnaires were validated by experts and professionals in educational management and policy studies, as well as, other experts in research methodology. The study conducted a trial testing of instrument using inter-Rater methods of reliability and it obtained 0.81 reliability index for Street Hawking among Female Students Rating Scale (SHFSRS) and 0.73 reliability index for Academic Performance Rating Scale (APRS) and this shows that the research instruments were found reliable for data collection. The study used descriptive statistics to answer research questions of the study, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software 20.0 version. The study found that Street hawking exposes female students to the act of immoralities, prostitution, regular road accident and other social vices that endanger their life. The study concluded that street hawking significantly hinders the educational development of female students in Sokoto state, this is because it reduces school attendances, increases truancy, enrollment and dropout rate which affects their academic performance and limit future opportunities. The study recommended that there is need for the state government through ministry of education to educate parents and guidance through sensitization and awareness creation programmes on the implication of street hawking on gild-child.