Library and Information Services for School Dropouts in Rural Nigeria: Case Study

Abstract

School dropouts are fast becoming a regular trend in our society today. This article aimed at ascertaining Library and Information Services for School Dropouts in Rural Communities using Omoku community in Ogba/Egbema/Indoni Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State, Nigeria as a case study. The main focus of the study was to explore the factors responsible; sources of information available, challenges faced in accessing information by school dropouts, and the role play in enhancing school retention for the dropouts through library services to rural communities. The study adopted a survey design. A total of 120 structured questionnaire instrument was administered to the respondents in markets, the streets, and camps during the school peak hours and the school days in the week with a simple interview carried out to the respondents of which 96 copies were completed and retrieved. A purposive sampling technique was used due to the size of the population. The data used for this study included both primary and secondary sources. Data obtained from the field survey was analyzed using simple percentage. The findings revealed that lack of finance to access information (93.7%), absence of public community library and information centres (82.2%), lack of ICT centre (77.1%) were the greatest challenges faced by school dropouts in the community studied. It was recommended that; a branch of the State public library and information centres should be established as a matter of urgency, libraries and librarians should collaborate with the Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku and other stakeholders within the LGA library advocacy programmes to sensitize the various groups affected on the ills of school dropout in rural communities, amongst others.