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THE EFFECT OF BROKEN HOMES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OHIMINI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE

Dept: EDUCATION File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views: 6

Abstract

This research work examined the effect of Broken Home on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue State. Four hundred students were randomly selected from eight Senior Secondary Schools in Ohimini Local Government to form the sample for this study. Eighteen item opinion questionnaires was developed and administered. The questionnaire was validated by seasoned experts drawn from measurement and evaluation section of the Department of Educational Foundations and Department of Psychology, Benue State University, Makurdi. Apart from the primary data collected via questionnaire, secondary data was also used in this research. Economics results of the sampled schools terminal examination as kept by the schools were collected and used. The means and simple percentage were used to answer the research questions while the t-test and chi-square statistic were used to test the hypotheses. The result revealed that Broken Home exerts a lot of Eff

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 

1.1   Background of the Study

        Education has always been an important institution in most cultures and at all times Agogo (2006), quoted Aliu (2001) as defining education as the method by which a society transmits from one generation to the next its knowledge, culture and values. It was further stressed that education is the eye of an individual, is the process by which a person learns facts, acquires skills and develops abilities and attitudes necessary for work place survival. In fact education has become a huge government venture that has witnessed a progressive evolution of government dynamic intervention and active participation (FGN 2004).

        With the present system of education, people now see education as a right and not a privilege. This makes everyone to have a sense of belonging in the society because everyone sees him/herself as having a duty to perform. Therefore, it is believed by many people that education is the key to success hence against same background education is rated as the eye of an individual (Agogo 2006).

        According to Hornby (2000), a home is conceived as a family living together and the way it behaves, while a family is referred to as a group consisting of one or two parents and their children (Ibid). Broken home is a term used to describe a household usually in reference to parenting in which the family unity does not properly function according to accepted social norms (Wikipedia online).

        This research work is therefore aimed at researching into the influence of family units which does not function according to accepted social norms on academic performance of secondary school students in Ohimini Local Government Area.

        It is opined that in any class of learner, there must be differences in individual performance. In a class of 40 children, the teacher may discover that children do not equally learn at the same rate even though he has used the same contents and methodology for the class (Mallum & Haggai 2004), therefore; there exist differences in students’ academic performance. However, several factors have been advanced for the causes of such differences in performance, personal intelligence, environment, meaningless of learning materials; learning style among others could affect the rate of learning (Ibid).

        The choice of broken home as a factor affecting academic performance is not far from the fact the family is the basic unit of the society (Abah 2006), and the home has a great influence on the student’s psychological, emotional, social and economic state (Ajila and Olutola 2007). The state of the home affects the individual because the parents are the first socializing agents in an individual’s life (Ibid). The number one ingredient that lays the psychosocial, moral and spiritual foundation in the overall development of the child is his family (Uwaifo 2008).

        It is ideal that the school is responsible for experiences that equip and make up the individuals life during school periods but however, the parents and the individuals’ experiences at home play tremendous roles in building the personality of the child and determining the child school life. Thus Ichado (1998) concluded that the environment in which the student comes from can greatly influence his personality and performance of secondary school students and hence the importance of education warrants the desire for this study so as to research the effect of broken home on academic performance of secondary school students and recommend possible remedies to such influence. The place of secondary education in the entire educational process is highly essential and need not to be neglected hence the quality of primary and secondary education play great role in determining the quality and sometimes the quantity of higher institutions for people (Agogo 2006). These whole facts equate this study to necessity. This study will principally examine the various aspects of broken home and how each influence children’s academic performance. It will examine issues like: to what extent do children living with their own married parents perform academically better than children living with foster parents? To what extent do children who live with single parents perform academically better than children who live with both father and mother? It will also analyze the extent to which broken home has affected the level of attention given to students by their parents, the degree to which broken homes has affected the level of academic motivation given by parents to their children. It is also intended that this work will discuss the degree of effect broken homes exert on the emotional atmosphere at homes, socio-economic status of parents and the general emotional stability of children.