THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL BACKGROUND ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the study

The home in Africa is quite varied and children from each of this various homes attend the same school. These variations do not take time to manifest in the school setting, since the child spends more of his time in the home than in school. Studies like that of Adelusi (2003) posited that the home could either be a motivating or an inhibiting factor to a child’s learning at school especially when it is clear that the home is the first social group with which the child comes in contact.

The home traditionally is made of a man, his wife and children if any. At the arrival of child, the husband and his wife become parents. Such a family or home is known as a nuclear family. It may be a small or large one when the children increase in number. But in Nigeria as well as other African countries, we usually have such people as the grandparents, the wife sisters or the husband’s brother and other relations living in the same household. Such a family may be small or large and is termed the extended family.

The home, whether rural or urban can be categorized into the following backgrounds; the rich, the average and the poor, Philip (2003). Each of these variants has it own socio-culture milieu which influences the child born and brought up in it.  Therefore, within a given milieu, rural and urban children emerge from overcrowded benefit of security as opposed to homes where love, plenty and enhanced peer sibling influence exist. Campbell (2000) and Veron (2003) maintained that the achievement a child makes during his school days is largely dependent on the type of home to which he belongs. This means that a child whose parents take great interest in what he does at school and support him has a great advantage over a child whose parents do not give any attention at all. Some parents do not give their children enough time to study and rest at the appropriate time, consequently, the children performs poorly at school.

Asley and Brian (2007) stated that the child is being born knowing nothing of his society but knowing the potential to learn of his society. The home provides the biological traits, qualities, and natural endowment potentialities, which directs a person’s human characteristics and upon which all other attributes are built- it offers the psychological and social needs for the growth and development of the child, (Brian, 2003).

The poor academic performance of secondary school students in Ukwa Local Government of Area State. The problems of poor academic performance is attributed to some home background variables. Home background variables, such as family size, parental education, parental academic achievement of students.

The interest of this research has been activated by the fact that all the effort made by Abia State government to improve the academic performance of secondary school students has not yielded the desired result. The research believes that researching into the following background variables (family size and marital status) will no small measure provide solutions to the problems of poor academic performance of secondary school students in Ukwa Local Government Area.

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CHILD LABOUR IN NIGERIA: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

       The rights of the child had long been recognized since 1924 with the general declaration on the rights of the child. In 1959, a further attempt was made at codifying the rights of the child. Other attempts made at he international level include the inclusion in Art- 23-24 of the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 and Article 10 of the International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights 1966 rights aimed at protecting the child.

       It was however, until 1989 that the United Nations General Assembly has able to adopt a most acceptable instrument for the protection of the child.

       This instrument is the United Nations convention on the Rights of the child 1989 but adopted in 1990 by the Heads of States and governments at the United Nations (UN) world summit for children held in that year.

       This move by the United Nations triggered off a lot of reactions from most regions of the world including Africa. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU) in line with convention adopted the OAU charter on the rights and welfare of the child 1990.

       Like most countries in Africa, Nigeria signed on and ratified both the convention and the charter thus making it obligatory for it to take appropriate legislative, administrative as well as other measures aimed at implementing the rights recognized therein.[1]

       Further, domesticating these rights in accordance with section 12(1) of the constitution  provides that: No treaty the federal and any other country shall have the force of law except to the extent to which such treaty has been enacted into law by the National Assembly. The National Assembly in Nigeria in 2003 enacted the Child Rights Act, 2003, thus making offences hitherto in the convention and charter enforceable in Nigeria.

       However, notwithstanding the steps tales, the concerns for the recognition and protection of the rights of the child in Nigeria continued to be in the gout bummer largely because of the increased cases of child abuse and child labour.

       These concerns increased when we considers the statistics made available by UNICEF. According to UNICEF, approximately 126 million children aged 5-17 are believed to be engaged in hazardous work, excluding child domestic labour and more than 1 million children worldwide are detained by law enforcement officials. It is estimated that more than 130 million women and girls alive today have undergone some form of female genital mutilation/cutting.

       The convention and the charter and indeed the child’s rights Act gives the child some rights which includes:

·        Right to Survival: right to life

·        Development Right: Example rights to education, play and recreation

·        Protection Right: Example rights against abuse, neglect and exploration.             

·        Participation Rights: example the right to participate in decisions that affect them.

Therefore, it is the rights of children to be protected from such abuses or violations that will deprive them of these rights or with impurity curtail all the rights.

The problem however, is that despite the statutory provisions of the Child Rights Act protecting the child, parents or people still employ means that violates the rights of the child. One can say that this is due to the fact that governments/parents are unwilling to effectively pursue enforcement of child right abuses. Unsavory pictures and tales of street children, child labour, sexual abuses, discrimination, child trafficking, child abandonment sometimes on excuses as witchcraft, rape and defilement etc abound despite the prohibition of same by law.

In identifying the problems associated with these acts, such problems could include:

Firstly, problem of implementation of existing laws by security agencies, parents and other organizations.  

Secondly, lack of awareness as to the rights of the child and the implications of the violation of these rights under the human rights law.

Thirdly, another problem is the refusal of some ethnic groups to accept the rights as enshrined in statistics to be generally applicable, hence the continued practice of harmful traditional practices and customs that are harmful and discriminatory to the child.

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INFLUENCE OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETY ACTIVITIES ON THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF OSISIOMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ABIA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

             INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the study

Co-operative movement has been in existence since the early days of civilization. Historical accounts suggest that various forms of co-operative activities exist since the days of the Babylonian era, and some said that cooperative is as old as mankind. It is the natural tendency of people to help each other (Chukwu, 1999).

Cooperative is the joint working of two or more cersons with a view to achieving a common end. Social progress depends on it and modern civilization cannot continue without it, scattered factors of production have ceen brought together by cooperative.

Many tasks have been done cooperatively, community efforts are put into building of road, bridges, houses, thrift and credit facilities, etc. These provide excellent examples.

At early nineteenth century in Britain, during the industrial revolution, the introduction of newly inverted machinery and other labour saving techniques gave rise to wide spread freedom to exploit others in an attempt to get rich quick. The machines conveniently replaced human labour with relative ease. It means the work was done both faster and better (Birchall, 2008).

Consequently, wages paid to workers were low but ionger hours of work coupled with in healthy working conditions. There was a mass rural-urban migration, father, mother and children worked in factories for long hours and family life was totally disrupted.

The said socio-economic conditions brought in dishonesty. False weight and measures were applied and housing condition very miserable. And yet goods were sold at such exorbitant price that the industrial owners in humanly sacked workers with careless abandon. Those who were left behind for whatever reasons were cruelly treated and in fact reduced to mere taking machines, starvation and suffering because so rampant among the poor that the period is better known.

The indices of social and economic" development includes employment opportunities, provision of social amenities to communities, good governance, commerce and industry, trade, manufacturing, Agricultural sector and education.

The above social and economic conditions gave rise to savage conflicts between the employers and the employees. Men of conscience were indisputably touched deeply. Consequently, humanitarian organizations sprang up, either to reduce to the barest minimum or to stamp out those undesirable human evils. There was an attempt to find solutions to the deteriorating conditions of the working class, characterized by their exploitation by factory.

The need to "join hands" and come together in fulfilling a cooperative societies were not very successful until the "Rockdale Equitable Pioneer" under the leadership of a dedicated philanthropist,  politician and church man Robert Owen, succeeded in forming a successful cooperative society in December 1844 (Ojo 2001).

Cooperative societies have succeeded in providing employment opportunities to the jobless youths in the society. However, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is reduced as a result of the existence of cooperative societies in our various communities (Telema, 2004).

Cooperative societies also provides social amenities like pipe borne waters, clinics, road maintenance, free drugs and immunizations against influenza, etc. 8Tessy 2009).In terms of good governance, cooperative societies also organize leadership forums and workshops for both the past, current, and future leaders in our societies.

They impact the knowledge of good governance into them. Cooperative societies have equally helped immensely in lending money to industrialists to aid commerce and industry in our societies. Most traders also affiliate with cooperative societies to enable them get incentives, loans and other dividends which will enable them progress in their business.

On the other hand, Agriculturalists are also encouraged and sponsored by cooperative societies. Also, cooperative societies educate, enlighten and inform the farmers on the new farming techniques and methods.

Cooperative societies also sponsor bright and intelligent students in the community by giving the scholarships and awards.

Cooperative societies in its broadest form is any form of organization where two or more persons come together with one motive in a formulized way to achieve some set goals and objectives thereby extending their plans to benefit its members and the community where it is located.

However, this particular study is aimed at identifying and investigating the influence of cooperative society activities on the social and economic development of

Osisioma Area of Abia State.

1.2.1 Roy’s voluntary theory of cooperative society

          Voluntary theory of cooperative society was propounded by Roy Roland in the year 1951.

          However, this theory states that cooperative society is a voluntary organization established for the pursuance of economic, social and political; interest of its members. This implies that cooperative should be an association of persons usually of limited means, who have voluntary joined together to achieve a common economic and through the formation of a democratically controlled business organizations, making equitable, and accepting a fair share of risk and benefit of the undertaking, more, it is a voluntary association of fee and independent persons for the betterment of their economic conditions.

          The implication of this theory to this study is that cooperative movements apart from their economic roles, still have other aims and an ideal cooperator seek to apply cooperative methods to all purposes of social life and does so because it is believed that in working for a common goal, man’s highest qualities are enlisted and developed, the man himself becomes a better man and the quality of human race is improved.

1.3     Statement of the problem

Due to the significance of cooperative society, the international labour organization has to show the fact that; "in current National Development Plan, various measures are adopted to broaden the productive base of the economy as a strategy to achieving a strong and virile economy, enhance availability of improved technology and extensive services through cooperative society activities.

The above policy statement clearly shows that the status and prominence given currently achieve and enjoyed by this relatively organization in our society is agent of change in the nation economy.

This understanding is therefore, aimed at obtaining and observing the activities of cooperative society in Osisioma Local government Area of Abia State through federal agencies to alleviate poverty, create wealth and ensure food security through cooperative society's scheme, the problem of ignorance, the formation of cooperative societies in Osisioma Local Government Area prevails hence, the need to research on".

1.       Promotion of members' interest on cooperative society activities and provision of services for them in Osisioma Local Government Area.

2.       Provision of fertilizer to members who are farmers

at low cost.

3.       Creating   of marketing   strategies for members

produce.

4.       Provision of credit facilities, example, loan to members in the area.

5.       To adequately inform and involve the people of Osisioma Local Government Area on the activities of cooperative society.

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THE EFFECT OF CHILD ABUSE ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY ONE STUDENTS IN BIASE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF CROSS RIVER STATE

CHAPTER ONE

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This study focuses on the effects of child abuse in Nigeria using Biase Local Government Area of Cross river State as a case study. This study will therefore identified the major effects of child abuse that stands as a bottleneck in Nigeria most especially among the senior secondary one students in Biase Local Government Area.

It therefore implies that, this research will look at the effects of the child abuse on the academic performance of students basically senior secondary one (S.S.1) students in Biase Local Government Area.

According to the united Nation (UN) standard, child abuse is a condition of causing or permitting to occur, any form of offensive or harmful contact on the body of the child, such a contact incorporated any form of interaction, exchange or communication that brings shame, embarrassment, fear or disgrace to the child.

This therefore, underscores the need to treat the child with dignity and as an entity who when his feeling and emotional disposition are unaffectionately tempered with, may degenerate into crisis.

However, a child is abuse if a recent act or failure to act on the part of a exploitation or any act or failure to act which involves imminent risk of serious harm (Khatric 2004).

Child abuse refers simply to the maltreatment of the child, hardly does a day pass by without a news report of a child who has been maltreated, battered, sexually harassed, neglected or abandoned by people who were suppose to look after them. Child abuse in Nigeria has a kind of institutionalized posture not until recently, when many writers, commentators and scholars have drawn the attention of the government and the general public to the incidence of child abuse. The persistence of child abuse has been attributed to some conditions that seems inevitable, and these conditions make families to fail in their duty to the child which include to ensure growth, to give right scope for emotional development and to preserve the art of parenthood as well as to teach behavior. With the alteration of society by rapid socio-economic and political changes various forms of child abuse have been identified, particularly in the rural areas such as in Biase Local Government Area, where the is increase in child labour and exploitation of children.          

Child abuse has been the cause of poor academic performances of S.S.1. Students in Biase Local Government Area. And this has constituted a serious problem which has becomes a cause for concerned to most people in different ways; it frustrates both the students and the teachers.

Teacher’s frustration stems from the very fact that students are not responsive enough in their lessons and yet both students and parents blame teachers for student’s poor performances. The teachers blame the students of lack of concentration and extra time to read at home. They also blame parents for failing to lay the right foundation on their children education.

Although this project will focus on the effect of child abuse on the academic performance of students in Biase Local Government Area of cross river state, The phenomenon by no means peculiar to Biase only, most urban and rural area have a share in child abuse and how it’s affects academic performance of senior secondary one [ S.S.1.] student.  

1.2     THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The theoretical background this study is very necessary, for scientific analysis and understand of a social problem a model for exploration is necessary. Therefore, there are various theories through which the incidence of child abuse can be explained namely; social learning theory, social cultural theories and type of cognitive development and instrumental conditioning.

I)    SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

  Albert Bandura is know has the originator of the social learning the in 1973, the foundation or the assumption of the theory is that, people learn within a social context, it is facilitated through concepts such as modeling and observational learning. People especially children, learn from the environment and seek acceptance from society by learning through influential models.

It is a theory with social behaviour (i.e. any type of behaviour that we display socially) is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others, the social behaviour is also influenced by being rewarded and/or punished for these actions.

According to Albert, observational learning can occur in relation to three models. 

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THE EFFECT OF STEREOTYPING IN THE STUDY OF MATHEMATICS IN BEKWARRA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF CROSS RIVER STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background of the study

Suffice it to say that stereotyping is a malignant force ravaging students’ interest in mathematics, thereby making them develop a negative attitude towards the subject without envisaging the aftermath effect. The effect of stereotyping in the study of mathematics is so obvious and catastrophic that it cannot be over emphasized. The misconceptions people have regarding the complexity of mathematics and its concomitant dissemination creates a mental image of inferiority and inability in the students which consequently affects their performance in mathematics. Hence the popular dictum by Mahatma Gandhi “a man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes”.

Most often in life, students are being carried away by what people think and say about them. They tend to act in a way that is consistent to how they are being stereotyped. Sequel to this, their thoughts feelings and actions are affected thus resulting to a shift in focus as a result of the negative stereotype held against them. Inzlincht reporting his observations said: “people perform poorly in situations where they feel they are being stereotyped” (Nauert 2010). That is, actions are commensurate with believes.

Steele and Aronson (1995) demonstrated that stereotype threat hinders intellectual performance of students who are being stereotyped. Experience has shown that some students who perform below expectation are only limited by their feeling of inferiority complex and also the stereotype others hold against them. In every class, some students are seen to be very brilliant while others are seen to be dull. But in reality, every body has the innate ability to perform certain task. As a result of the stereotype held against some members of the class, they relent in their effort to step up their performance on the simple misconception that mathematics is not meant for them. This misconception prompts students to undermine their innate abilities, thus resulting in weak performance.

It is worthy of note that some students perform below average, simply on the ground of their geographical location. Just like it is commonly believed that man is a product of his environment, most students are of the opinion that mathematics is meant for a particular race, tribe or ethnic group which in turn, hinders their performance in mathematics.               

Nauert (2010) pointed out that when a group of people are being labeled in a negative manner, it has a lasting detrimental effect on those who experience the prejudice. This group of people may be a particular race, tribe, town, village, ethnic group etc. Whatever the group maybe, once they experience stereotyping or they feel they are being stereotyped, it is bound to leave a lasting detrimental effect on them, as far as corrective measures are not put in place.

Nwachukwu (2007) noted that the confusion students face when it comes to making the right occupational choice in most cases is highly traumatic at any point, especially at the senior secondary level. This is not supposed to be the case in situations where students are being guided on the right choice of occupation. Teachers are supposed to use their knowledge of psychological concepts to improve upon teaching and learning and also guide students in their career choice. But unfortunately, this is often not the case (Chew 2005, 2007). Most students in secondary school choose their career such that mathematics is excluded while others do not develop interest in mathematics with the notion that they will not encounter mathematics in their future career. Such students, when they gain admission to the higher institution and unfortunately find themselves in another faculty different from faculty of law and faculty of arts, feel confused and frustrated when they encounter the preliminary mathematics offered by these other faculties.

The likelihood that the female students will be able to compete adequately and favourably with their male counterparts in any mathematics test is highly negligible. The chances of high and optimum performance is often preferential in favour of the males. This is in line with the research by Obioma and Ohuche (1980), in which case they found a significant effect of sex in favour of males. A contrary finding by Ekwueme and Umoinyang (2005) revealed that girls have more positive attitude towards mathematics hence leading to a more successful study and a better performance than the boys. While Inyang in 2004 found that there is no significant difference in the performance of the students bearing in mind the different sexes.

The above claims, some of which are contrary to the others necessitated the adventure into this research project. That is, to determine the effect of stereotyping in the study of mathematics in Bekwarra Local Government Area of Cross River State.

1.2      Theoretical framework         

The following are considered under theoretical framework:

Michael Inzlincht – Long-term effect of stereotyping

Claude steele      -  Effect of racial stereotyping

Eric Erikson        -  Theory of psychosocial development  

Michael Inzlincht is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His research interest is on stigmatization, prejudice and discrimination. The aim of his research according to him, was to “look at what happens afterwards. Are there lingering effects of prejudice? Does being stereotyped have an impact beyond the moment when stereotyping happens?” In this first experiment, the participants were placed in a situation where they had to perform a task in the face of negative stereotype. After removing them from the prejudicial situation, the result of the observation showed that prejudices and stereotyping have lingering adverse impacts. Even after people leave a situation where they face negative stereotypes, the effects of coping with that situation remains.

        In another section of the study, Inzlincht the leader of the research team said they told the women that “the test” would determine whether or not they were capable and smart in mathematics, subtly injecting stereotypes about women and mathematics into the air”.

        A separate group of women wrote the same test, but were given the necessary coping strategies and support to deal with the stress involved. After this, the two groups of women performed other tasks. “In this follow-up test, the women who felt discriminated against ate more than their peers in the control group, showed more hostility than the control group and performed more poorly on tests that measured their cognitive ability”.

        This in reality is most often the situation. Whenever people are being stereotyped, they are bound to perform poorly irrespective of the domain that is being measured. In most situations, the effect of stereotyping may still be experienced a long time after the stereotype situation is over. “These lingering effects hurt people in a very real way, leaving them at a disadvantage. Even many steps removed from a prejudicial situation, people are carrying around this baggage that negatively impacts their lives”.

Claude Steele was born January 1, 1946 in Chicago. He had his B.A in 1967 at Hiram College (Hiram OH). He obtained his M.A. in 1969 in Ohio State University and Ph.D in 1971.

        Claude Steele and his Colleague Joshua Aronson in early 1990s performed the first experiment to demonstrate the effect of stereotype threat on intellectual performance. In their study, they had two groups of students: the African-American and the European- American students take the graduate record examination. The African-American students in their examination performed below average.

        In another experiment, Steele and Aronson made the students believed that the test was not meant to measure their ability. This second experiment reduced the achievement gap between the two groups of students. This made Steele and Aronson came to the conclusion that changing the test situation such that students do not feel the effect of stereotyping can reduce the achievement gap caused as a result of the stereotyping.

        To sum it, what Steele and Aronson were trying to experiment is that stereotyping is situational. Students confirm the negative stereotype when it is framed such that it affects their group. For students to be able to overcome the effect of stereotyping, they should understand how they are being stereotyped, when they are being stereotyped and should cause people to stereotype them in the positive direction. 

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