ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to find the effects of broken homes
on the academic performance of secondary school students in Esan West Local
Government Area of Edo state. The sample for the study comprises students and
teachers randomly selected from five secondary schools in Esan West Local
Government Area of Edo state. In achieving the goal of the study, four (4)
hypotheses were stated. Twenty item questionnaires was designed to draw out
responses from respondents, the responses were used to test the hypothesis.
Recommendations were made at the end of the study; findings include the
employment of marital counselors at the social welfare office and establishment
of marital counseling center by the government. It has also been recommended
that similar research should be carried out in other states and Local
Government areas.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
Education has been viewed by scholars
based on their perception of what education is Castle (2005) sees education as
what happened to us from the day we are born to the day we die. Yoloye (2000)
defines education as a weapon for combating ignorance, poverty, and disease, as
a bridge between confusion and comprehension, as a dam for conserving man’s
store of civilization and for generating the power to move to greater
civilization, as a means for transporting man from a state of intellectual
subservience to a state of intellectual sovereignty.
In a nutshell, education is an all
round development of an individual, intellectually, morally, and mentally, so
that he will be useful to himself and the society he belongs.
It is assumed that a broken home
retard the progress of those children from such background in that both parents
are not on a ground to direct and guide the child towards the achievement of
educational goals. It is arguable or believed that children form broken homes
are more likely prone to poor academic performance. A child may become a victim
of broken home as a result of divorce or separation of the parents. When this
happens, the child is entrusted to other people that are different form his
parents. This person is expected to play the role of a surrogate parents
despite his/her commitment to his/her own children. Without any empirical
evidence, it is very clear that nobody will treat a child who is entrusted to
his care the way he/she will treat his/her own child. By this token, the child
is always confused and frustrated under the leadership style of step fathers or
step mothers. The frustration of a child knows no bound. At home under
surrogate parents he is discriminated and suffers some psychological
deprivations. He carries the same emotional frustration to the school. Instead
of listening to the teacher and taking down notes, he is more often occupied
with the intimidation, discrimination and deprivation he/she is facing at home.
As such, he has little or no interest in the learning materials, as classes are
ought to be attended and comprehensible in the course of subject taught or
presented at school.
Apart from the frustration,
discrimination, discouragement and deprivation, the child may also be
malnourished and segregated by surrogate parents (i.e mother) who feel that she
is wasting the family resources on the child she did not give birth to. The
child may lack the necessary school materials and in most cases, may grudgingly
allow the child to be attending school while the child may not be given the
necessary things that are vital for acquisition of knowledge since he know that
he will be punished by the teacher for lack of learning materials, he may
result to play truancy.
Single parenthood has been found to
adversely affect the learning situation of human being particularly the
children. That is to say, children who are reared in homes where parents are
separated or divorced are most likely to be faced with sleep disturbance in
class while learning and become irritable, fearful, aggressive and withdrawn
(Cole and Cole, 2003; Vander-Zanden, 2000). Studies further confirm that
children in one parent’s household not only do or perform poorly in school
because they tend to lack self-control; but also become disruptive in the
classrooms, instead of paying attention to what is being taught in class, they
are busy disturbing others ready to learn. In addition, it is also reported
that two years immediately after mother’s marriage break up, the mother
exercise less control over her children than she did before (Hetherington, Cox
and Cos, 2002).
The problems children from broken
homes are facing with the resultant failure in school is a serious affair that
calls for the attention of all and sundry including the government.
Statement of
Problem
In
Nigeria, divorce is becoming a common phenomenon. Mallon (2008) noted that it
is common to see and hear of divorce cases here and there. In Ekpoma, this is a
common trend among those who lives as married couples, to file divorce suite on
the other. This is usually associated among the educated elites, this bad trend
should be noted by teachers and school heads both public and private at the
secondary school levels, as it has bear its ugly toll on the psychological,
social and most importantly academics performance of school children, who turns
out to miscreants “street boys” Products of the society. The popular Lagos
weekend and Lagos life reported at least three to four cases of marital
disruption weekly in Lagos and its environment. Also in Kwara State, Ministry
of Information Youth, Sports and Social development recorded 53,697 marriages
were registered for both the churches and registry from 2001 to 2013. Also
given in Edo State the issue of divorce was recorded in child welfare centres.
A
total of 97,505 marriages were recorded between 2000 to 2013 and 42,345 out of
the total marriages were divorced. Further observation shows the negative
effects on our wards. The local government needs to find practical solutions or
to minimize the problems.
Ekpoma,
Esan West local government area of Edo State shares cultural, religious and
language values with her neighboring local government areas namely. Esan South,
Esan North, Esan Central Local Government Area. What this implies, is that if
divorce is a problem in Ekpoma West local government areas it, is likely to be
a problem in those neighboring local government areas.
This
study was set up to examine the effects of broken homes on academic performance
in secondary schools and to find answers to important questions
Research
Questions
The
following are research question for the study
i.
What do student in secondary schools in (Esan West
local government areas) perceives to be the effects of broken homes?
ii.
Does the student perception of the effects of broken
homes affect their academic performance?
iii.
What is the difference of students from broken homes
with those from non-divorced homes?
iv.
What is the performance ratio of students from broken
home with those from non broken homes?
A good understanding of what
students perceive to be the effects of broken home will surely help secondary
school teachers approach marital problems with more data facts and
understanding.
Purpose of Study
The
purpose of this study is to find out:
i.
The perception of students in Esan West local
government areas on the effects of broken homes
ii.
How the students’ perception of the effects of
broken homes affect their academic performance.
iii.
The differences of students from broken homes with
those from non-broken homes
iv.
The performance ratio of students from broken home
with those from non-broken homes
Hypothesis
Based
on the finding from this chapter, the following hypothesis will be tested to
guide the conduct of the study.
i.
There is no significant difference between the older
married couples and the younger married couple.
ii.
There is no significant difference between male and
female married couple in their perception of effects of broken homes.
iii.
There is no significant difference among married
home of different villages in their perception of effects of broken homes
iv.
There is no significant difference among couples
with different years of marital experience in their perception of effects of broken
homes
Significance of
the Study
The
family is the basic unit of the society. Modem communities value the family for
the contribution it adds to the social life, especially in the socialization of
children and adults on the entire population. Earlier studies on marital instability,
such as Olusanya (2009) have shown that educational status has positively
associated with marital stability. The standard of educational status as a
factor of marital stability needs do be clarified.
Danya
(2006), observed that divorce rate is on the increase by the day, that many
articles has littered the newspapers stand and other bookselling outfits.
This shows how concerned the public is with
respect to divorce issues.
This
study will thus provide relevant and valuable information to family members,
marriage advisers and counselors on how to obtain appropriate solutions to
marital problems. It will assist them to be able to render needed help to
couples, parents of those children to adjust better in their respective homes
for reconciliation. The student will be made aware of the importance of marital
stability and factors that leads to marital instability.
This
study is thus, reaching out to this school environment, to the family,
unmarried males and females, to those intending couples, so as to be able to
discover those social ills that are retarding to the achievements of the aims
of education and the academic performance of the learners.
Scope of the
Study
The
study was limited to some selected secondary school students in Ekpoma, Esan
West Local Government Area of Edo State. It covers the students in Ujoelen
grammar school, Ihumudumu secondary school, Ujemen secondary school, Eguare
secondary school and Emaudo Secondary School, all in Esan West local government
area of Edo State. This study involves only student from divorced/broken homes
in the five secondary schools. This is because they are the ones that have
experienced with such and so could respond to the instrument appropriately.
Definition of
Terms
The
following terms are defined as they are to be used for the purpose of this study.
Marriage: It is the legal relationship
between a husband and wife
Marital
Instability: Strain and stress in marital relationship, constant quarrelling and
fighting. Marital disruption or disharmony between married couples caused by
interaction of the spouse.
Learning: A relatively pertinent to
permanent change in the behaviour of an individual as a result of learning
Legal Divorce: This is a case where a marriage
is totally broken by a court of low or religious order and the two parties
(spouse) and free to remarry, if those documents and tendered for
rectification.
Broken Home: A home is said to be broken when
it lacks stability, fervency, Joy, Zest Excitement that characterized a happy
relationship.
Separation: A situation in which a married
couple lives apart and operate separately in marriage without being divorced,
very often separation leads to divorce.
Married Couples:
- These
are husband and wife who are legally in a marriage relationship legally
contracted under the traditional, religious or court order.
Performance: This is the ability to
successfully carry out a given task.
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