Education is a 1001 to enable citizens to make all rounded participation in developmentrnprocess. The participation of females in socio-economic programs especially depends on theirrneducational background Educating girls and women is critical to achieve the benefits as well asrnthe improvement in the areas of health, fertility and nutrition. Thus, females must be treatedrnequally with males to attain educational access, which is necessQly to increase theirrnparticipation in different development programs. International treaties, conventions, laws &rnpolicies set a legal commitment on the right of education and gender equality. However, grossrnand net enrollment differences in schooling of females prevail. Females remain underrnrepresented at all levels of education. The females ' participation gap in education is wide inrndeveloping countries, one of which is Ethiopia.rnEthiopia is one of the developing countries with low females' participation in education.rnStatistics reveals that the number of female students in primary, secondary and higher educationrnis not equal to that of male students. This low participation is one of the causes for females' to bernunderprivileged and underrepresented in development programs. If low females participation inrneducation continues, the Country would probably have a problem in achieving MDGs Goal 3rnTarget 4. These raise the issue that the role of education and female participation should bernanalyzed and studiedrnThe aim of this research was to fdentify factors affecting females 'participation in educationrnin Dawuro Zone, Tocha woreda. To attain this objective, information on school enrollment andrnschool age population was gathered flom documents of the Ministry of Education andrnSNNPREB. Further more, fo rmal questionnaires were distributed to 260 female students, schoolrnprincipals and teachers. On the other hand, focuscd-group discussion was held with 56 femalernstudents' parents and with six woreda educational officials to gather information on factors thatrnhave contributed to low female participation in education. Percentages were predominantly usedrnto indicate the magnilude oJrespondents' opinion and assumptions against each statement.rnThe results of the study showed that factors that affected females participation in educationrnare: qualification oj teachers, parents demand of female child labor, school cost such as housernrent, food s1lpply cost, long distance to school, parents' poverty, fear of male harassment, lack ofrnrole models, dropolll, abduction or "telefa ", parents' religion type, early marriage, PQl-ems'rnilliteracy and wony of 1Inwonted pregnancy. These are the IIwiur reasons for lOll' femalernparticipation in eaueatian in the .