Women Education Variables and Sustainable Development in Uyo Urban of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

The study explored women education as a prerequisite for sustainable development in Nigeria using Akwa Ibom State as a case study. Three research questions and three hypotheses were respectively formulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was used to carry out this study. The population of the study comprised all women who have not attained education up to the tertiary level. The sample size of 65 respondents was derived from five communities in Uyo Urban of Akwa Ibom State using the simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Researchers-developed structural interview instrument titled ‘Accessing Women Education Questionnaire (AWEQ)’ was used to gather information from the respondents. The instrument used for data collection was validated and tested for internal consistency using Cronbach Alpha Analysis which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.87. Data obtained were analysed using Simple Linear Regression statistics and hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that women education variables significantly predict sustainable development. It was concluded that the parlance of ‘Educate a girl/woman, and you educate the whole nation’ should be re-occurring in the mindset of the general public so that women education will gain root in contributing to sustainable livelihood and economic development. It is recommended amongst others that the disparity in gender education should be checkmated to allow male and female equal right to put up effort in taking decision on their choice of career and what they are capable of doing without any form of discrimination. 

Keywords: Women, education, sustainable development