Assessing the Hindrances to Female Education in the Korie Chiefdom, Southern Sierra Leone, A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The plight of uneducated women in the Korie Chiefdom and Sierra Leone, in general, cannot be overlooked, as women of all ages are socially, physically, and emotionally treated inferiorly compared to their male counterparts. Although education has been identified as a powerful weapon against poverty, in many low-income families, boys are favored to go to school while girls are culturally and domestically prepared for marriage. This research, therefore, applied structural equation modeling techniques to highlight the main hindrances to female education in the Korie Chiefdom, in the southern part of Sierra Leone. For this purpose, a cluster sampling methodology was employed to select 1200 respondents from the selected villages. Out of the three structural equation models used in the analysis, model 3 was found to be more appropriate and plausible as it satisfied all the fit measures, including the chi-square test. The empirical result revealed a positive and significant relationship between the dependent endogenous construct “educational attainment†and the independent latent variables “learning intensity†, †“intention†, “perceived behavioral control†, and “economic factors†. On the other hand, a negative but significant relationship was observed between the dependent endogenous construct “educational attainment†and the independent latent variables “social force/norms.â€