Educational Aspirations of Secondary School Girls in Rural Areas and Their Incidence on Academic Achievement

The study investigated the educational aspirations of secondary school girls in rural areas and their incidence on academic achievement. The sample consisted of 165 female students from three secondary schools in Fungom Sub-Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting the sample. Three research questions and a hypothesis guided the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Information about their academic performance was obtained from school records. Frequencies, percentages, the t-test and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) were used in analysing the data. The computation of data was done manually and with the aid of a statistical package. The findings showed that: Girls in Fungom feel that education is important; Girls in Fungom have an average self-esteem; about 47% of secondary school girls aspire to secondary high school while 52% aspire to obtain university degrees; secondary school girls in Fungom have a limited range of vocational interests; there is a low correlation between educational aspirations and academic achievement of girls in this study; and girls with high educational aspirations perform better than those with low educational aspirations. Keywords: Educational aspirations, female students, rural areas, academic achievement, perception, and self-esteem