Social Problems And Academic Performance Of Students In Selected Secondary Schools
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Social Problems And Academic Performance Of Students In Selected Secondary Schools
ABSTRACT
The study focused on the association between social problems in schools and students’ academic achievement in selected secondary schools in Mushin Local Government Area, Lagos State. To drive the study, seven research objectives were provided, followed by seven research questions and hypotheses.
A total of 250 teachers were carefully selected from the entire population using the stratified and simple random procedure. The research design was descriptive survey in nature, with a questionnaire constructed to collect the data used in the study.
Pearson Correlation Statistics was used to evaluate the study’s null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance in order to accept or reject them. The study’s findings revealed a significant relationship between age and the promotion of maladaptive behaviour that leads to poor academic performance
there is a significant relationship between school entry age and academic performance; similarly, the results revealed a significant relationship between cult activities and academic performance; and a significant relationship between examination malpractice and academic performance.
Other findings of the study demonstrated a substantial association between deviancy/delinquency and academic performance of pupils; significant relationship exists between truancy to school and academic performance of students. Recommendations were made in light of the research findings.
They include. There is a need for counselling services in secondary schools in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State; children should be exposed to reading and writing at a very young age; the government should place an indefinite ban on all forms of associations in secondary schools that are not promoting students’ knowledge, skill, and attitude;
the government should also continue in the fight against corruption in all its ramifications and punish offenders to deter others; it was also recommended Also, parents should guarantee that their children arrive to school early every day and that the current curriculum on religion and national values is adequately implemented.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the study
Social problems are difficulties that have recently occurred in society. They are issues that affect the entire society. The concerns are of major significance to both youth and adults. They are not personal or individualised difficulties, but rather general ones that demand a broad answer.
Some of the social issues that pervade our country, such as corruption, social inequality, ethnicity, limited resources, poverty, criminality, and other socioeconomic crises, have manifested in various dimensions at the secondary school level of our education system and appear to be reaching alarming proportions.
It is critical to evaluate the impact social issues have on pupils’ academic achievement. Although several socioeconomic and psychological variables such as hard work and discipline, family income, parent’s education, ability, interest, and aptitude have been identified to impact on academic performance
often lost in this inquiry is consideration of adolescent biological age, school entry age, cult activities, examination malpractice, truancy/deviancy, and late-coming to school, which are some of the social issues happening in secondary school students.
Given our country’s academic and behavioural performance issues, the relative lack of attention paid to these pervasive social problems in secondary schools is disappointing.
First, adolescents’ age has been linked to identity issues. They are bombarded with ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘where’, and ‘when’ questions about life. They are impatient to acquire a speedy outcome, which exposes them to a variety of risks. Our media is loaded with many accounts of social evils committed by adolescent pupils in schools. Similarly, the age at which a child enters school might have an impact on his or her education.
In this sense, the time a child spends learning in school is determined by his or her parents’ socioeconomic status. The research results on the association between school entry age and academic performance are mixed. There is a need to create a balance between these contrasting outcomes.
Second, cult activities among high school students were unprecedented in the recent past. Today, cultism has taken the stage in secondary schools. When cults strike, academic calendars are likely to be disrupted (Olusakin, 2004).
Students who are not serious about their academic work, the majority of whom are (if not all) members of secret cults, frequently cause uncertainty, which can lead to school closures. The cultist’s violent acts disrupt the calm of the academic environment.
The violent activities at secondary schools in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, and Adamawa State in 2012 were covered in daily newspapers (Nation Newspaper, 2012; Nigerian Tribune, 2012). This condition may cause schools to close, keeping pupils at home for an extended period of time, thereby jeopardising their education.
Some cultists who are caught may face suspension or expulsion from school. Whatever the case, cultism among secondary school students is a necessary evil that has a negative impact on students’ academic performance because those who engage in it pay less attention to reading and studying in school.
Third, students engage in examination malpractice because they want to achieve the highest possible results without putting forth the necessary preparatory effort.
Corruption in private and public areas, as well as Nigeria’s reliance on certificates, have not helped the situation. Every high school student understands that examination malpractice is wicked and corrupt, but many of them nevertheless participate.
Today, the situation is so severe that some parents, teachers, proprietors / proprietresses, and examination authorities, who should be leading the fight against examination malpractice, are also contributing to it.
In any case, students are less likely to follow formal examination regulations when they believe rewards are based on personal rather than professional criteria, or when they believe there is widespread corruption in national and local government, than in societies where high levels of integrity are perceived to prevail (Okolie, 2004).
Third, it is fairly uncommon for kids to become angry when professors attempt to regulate them when they make noise and disrupt other students in class. In a similar spirit, rape or sexual promiscuity, arson and wanton damage of structures and properties, and imitation of other ways of life appear to be the norms of many adolescent pupils.
It is important to remember that when students set buildings on fire and destroy property, the school is forced to close. As a result, deviant and delinquent behaviour among secondary school pupils has become a major societal issue in schools. This has an impact on students’ learning and, consequently, their academic achievement.
Four, the situation in our high schools in terms of absence and truancy is deplorable. Absenteeism and truancy are big issues in our schools today, and the negative repercussions on children’ academic performance have been generally disregarded.
However, in this study, academic performance refers to a student’s capacity to do well, reasonably, or poorly in an examination. Students’ academic achievement is evaluated using a variety of standardised assessments and examinations. It is worth noting that academic achievement, including academic failure, is frequently considered in narrow terms, as an individual behaviour restricted to the early life course.
In essence, academic success has repercussions that extend across life phases and at numerous levels. It is noted that academic difficulties predict individuals’ short-term problem behaviour and dropout, and can disrupt educational and career paths far into adulthood.
It can also cause disruption and undermine the overall aim of schools, and widespread academic failure has an impact on fertility, mortality, marriage, and unemployment rates due to its relationship to educational attainment and human capital development (Egenti, 2005).
Thus, what appears to be a minor component of adolescent life has far-reaching implications for a wide range of social phenomena. This reinforces the need to investigate how social difficulties among kids connect to their academic achievement in secondary schools.
Furthermore, despite the law prohibiting examination malpractices and the teaching of Civic Education, Social Studies, and Christian Religion / Islamic Religion at Nigerian junior and senior secondary schools in order to instill good values in students, social issues in secondary schools continue. To stem the flow of conditions, further investigation into these problem areas among high school students is required.
Undeniably, the current Nigerian age is characterised by youth restlessness and moral degradation, with corruption, arson and looting, kidnapping, and terrorism on the rise in deteriorating neighbourhoods and large cities such as Lagos. Student participation in such activities is steadily increasing, posing a significant danger to our educational objectives.
Without a doubt, the academic and maladaptive behaviour performance of secondary school children merits further investigation. The tendency of low performance of secondary school students in West African School Certificate Examinations, as well as students’ emotional lives, provide additional incentive for this research.
As a result, it is critical for educators to be able to identify sources of emotional stress in adolescents and refer them to appropriate professional and adult guidance in school.
This study intends to investigate the relationship between social concerns in schools and students’ academic achievement in Mushin Local Government Area, Lagos State.
1.2 Theoretical Framework for the Research
This study’s theoretical underpinning is based on four theories. These hypotheses are:
I. Hirschi’s Social Control (1978)
ii. Labelling and Conflict Theories by Howard Becker (1963) and Karl Marx (1867)
iii. Daphend’s functional and interactionism ideas from 1959, and
iv. Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1977–1986)
Hirschi’s Social Control Theory (1978)
The hypothesis contends that connections to family, school, and other components of society reduce one’s proclivity for aberrant behaviour. As a result, social control theory holds that crime arises when such relationships are weakened or not firmly developed. Control theorists say that without such relationships, crime is unavoidable.
Control theories, in contrast to other theories that seek to explain why people engage in aberrant activity, ask why people restrain from offending. As a result, criminality is viewed as a possibility for all members of society, with the exception of those who desire to retain familial and social relationships.
Hirschi believes that these bonds are formed by attachment to those both within and outside of the family, such as friends, teachers, and coworkers; commitment to activities in which an individual has invested time and energy, such as educational or career goals; participation in activities that serve to further bond an individual to others while leaving limited time to engage in deviant activities; and, finally, belief in broader social values.
These four mechanisms of social control are assumed to work together to protect an individual from criminal activity (Siegel and McCormick, 2006). Researchers investigated bonds, schools, communities, and religion to establish the strength of social control theory as it applies to young people.
It is suggested that for young individuals, the family is an important source of social control, notably through interactions with and sentiments towards parents. Many research on the impact of social control on delinquency have indicated a negative association between parental attachment and delinquency.
As a result, it has been discovered that the stronger the relationship to parents, the lesser the probability of engaging in delinquent activity. Empirical research supports the idea that parental actions and support can have an impact on teenage violence.
Hirschi’s social control theory views adolescent attachment to school, along with parental attachment, as a key mechanism of establishing social control. A large number of research on social control theory include assessments of the significance of school attachment and school support in the lives of young people.
It is worth noting, however, that a strong attachment to school was connected with less violent behaviour. The function of the community and neighbourhood as agents of social control has also been investigated in the social control literature.
In light of the foregoing, this hypothesis is useful in explaining the relationship between social concerns in secondary schools in Mushin Local Government Area, Lagos State, and students’ academic achievement.
Labelling and Conflict Theory by Howard Becker (1963) and Karl Marx (1867)
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