Factors Which Have Motivated Parents To Send Their Children - Math Problem Example

Over half of the fathers who have enrolled their children in preschool education facilities work in the private sector. The percentage of mothers willing to take their children to preschool centres and work in the private sector is considerably smaller at just over an eighth. Mothers working in the academic sector, which includes teachers, tutors and lectures and researchers have a higher regard for such early years education facilities as a quarter of them have enrolled their children in early years education but only a small fraction of fathers working in the same sector have enrolled their children in early years education.

The number of fathers who have enrolled their children in the two centres is four times higher than that of mothers. This implies that the government does not observe equal employment opportunities between the genders. However, it is interesting to note that almost a quarter parents employed by the government prefer Dar Al Yosour as opposed to Early Childhood Centre (ECC) which has just slightly over a sixth. This difference can be explained by presence of more government offices in Jeddah than Al-Khobar.

  Nearly half of the mothers are housewives and unemployed. This does not clearly concur with the national figures where less than a quarter of the total women in Saudi Arabia are economically active (Freedom House, 2011; Long 2005). The relatively higher percentage of women involved in productive employment in this study could be partly due to the geographic location of the sample i.e. urban areas. Men are traditionally perceived as breadwinners while women act as mothers and wives at home (Long 2005).

This may have three implications, i) the dominate role of mothers that might be still present in Saudi society, that is to stay home and raise the children. ii) The educational system in the country is producing more qualified women than the economy can absorb.