Gender Inequality in Schooling among Children and the Implications for Livelihood of Farming Households in Kwara State, Nigeria

Despite several investments programmes by the Nigerian Government and development institutionsover the years to bridge the gender gap in schooling among children and increase enrolment inschools, most children are still found outside the walls of the classroom especially in rural areas. This researchassessed how inequality in gender as it regards schooling among children affects the income as anindicator of livelihood of farming households in Kwara state, Nigeria. A sampling technique comprisingof three stages was used to randomly select 200 farming households in the study area. Data were collectedusing questionnaire and were analyzed using the Gini-coefficient and the Ordinary Least Squaremethod. The result showed an overall gini-coefficient for gender inequality in schooling of 0.35, with thevalue for boys and girls at 0.35 and 0.49 respectively. Mother’s education, age of the household heads,marital status, dependency ratio, farm size and the average time spent by the children on the farm werefound to significantly influence children’s access to schooling. While increase in schooling cost, averageyears of schooling of the children affects the farm income. It was thus recommended that parents shouldbe sensitized on the future benefits of sending their children to school. More so, credits should be mademore accessible to farming households. This might help in the establishment of mechanized farm systemthus reducing the need for manual labour and improving the children’s opportunities of schooling.