IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 23, Issue 1, Ver. 9 (January. 2018) PP 29-37 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2301092937 www.iosrjournals.org 29 | Page Relationship between Parental Cultural and Religious Beliefs and Students’ Dropout from Government Secondary Schools of Zamfara, Nigeria Ahmad Kainuwa 1 , Najeemah Binti Mohammad Yusuf 2 & Jamalsafri Bin Saibon 3 1 Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Humanities and Education Federal University Gusau 2,3 School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia Abstract: This conceptual paper studies the relationship between parental cultural and religious beliefs and students‟ dropout from government secondary schools of Zamfara, Nigeria. The paper reviews the studies on relationship between parental cultural and religious beliefs and students‟ dropouts. In addition, the paper also examines literature related to parental cultural and religious beliefs and students‟ dropout from government secondary schools in both Nigeria and other countries. The discussion in the paper is based on the theoretical framework of ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979). This theory is appropriate for the study because it allows the reader to understand how children‟s education is significantly affected by the parental cultural and religious beliefs. Finally, the paper provides and presents some suggestions and recommendations on how to improve student‟s retention and minimize the problem of dropout. Conclusions from the literature were drawn, and the paper concludes that parental cultural and religious beliefs are related to students‟ dropout. Keywords: Relationship, Parental Cultural and Religious Beliefs, Students‟ Dropouts, Zamfara, Nigeria. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 15-12-2017 Date of acceptance: 31-01-2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION The problems facing Nigeria educational system cannot, however, be over generalized because of the diversity characterizing its history which makes some problems peculiar to certain regions. This means for example, that while the education of female children and women is characterized by lower enrolment than that of boys, females enroll in larger numbers at the lower primary levels than males, which numbers begin reducing midway in the cycle and drop drastically by the end of the cycle. In Nigeria, variations in educational participation between genders are quite significant and the similarity of problems in most parts of the country nevertheless, makes concern over secondary education pertinent and deserving of special attention Atayi (2008). Cultural and religious beliefs of the parents such as early marriage, parental services, employment in domestic markets expectation of immorality of female children, expectation of harassment and abduction of female children at school by the parents, female students‟ abduction, parent‟s fear of mixing of female children with boys at school and the highest status accorded to marriage and motherhood in many communities impact negatively on female participation in secondary education (Commish and Brak as cited in Chege and Sifuna, (2006). Save the children (2005) indicates that cultural norms also inhibit girls access to education in many parts of developing world. Social traditions and deep rooted religions and cultural beliefs may make it unacceptable for a girl to express her opinions, make decisions for herself or participating in activities with boys of her age. Background to The Study Despite international and national efforts to ensure a successful migration from gender disparity to gender parity of secondary school students, huge success has not been recorded. Evidence has noted that in Nigeria, governmental, non-governmental and private initiatives within and outside the frontiers of the nation for the northern states to embrace education has proved abortive (Mohammed, 2004). The number of secondary school students more especially girls attending schools in some northern states of Nigeria such as Niger, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto is still abysmally low while the male child has a choice to attend; his female counterpart is strictly discouraged from obtaining the basic western education (UNGEI-Nigeria, 2012, www.ungei.org). UNGEI-Nigeria (2012) further stated that there are still millions of boys and girls without access to primary needless secondary education across the continent and many millions that have started dropout. According to United Nation (2013), progression to the next education level is also a challenge. In fact,