INFLUENCE OF CHILD LABOUR AND PARENTAL SUPPORT ON CHILDREN’S INTEREST IN SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN NSUKKA

ABSTRACT

The researcher conducted an investigation on the influence of child labour and parental support on children’s interest in school attendance and  achievement motivation among primary school pupils. Six research questions and six hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study consists of three hundred and thirty one (331) primary five pupils, 171 boys and 160 girls in government schools in Nsukka urban educational zones. The major instrument for collection of data was questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistical tools. The major findings of the study are: (1) pupils interest in school attendance is significantly influenced by child labour. (ii) There is significant difference in the achievement motivation of pupils who are under child labour and those who are not. (iii) parental support has a significant influence on the willingness of the pupils to attend school. (iv) lack of good parental support has underlined pupils achievement motivations (v) The pupils interest in school attendance is not influences by gender except for their achievement motivation. Following this findings, some recommendations and suggestions for further studies were made

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Child Labour is one of the most rampant societal problems facing Nigeria today. This refers to any engagement of the child for payment or not but directed to alleviating adult burden or making a living. Such activities include hawking, domestic servants, begging, mining, prostitution or quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents’ business or doing odd jobs. The exploitative child Labour occurs when children, especially young ones are exposed to long hours of work in dangerous environment or are entrusted with too much responsibility.

Child maltreatment is the general term used to describe all forms of child labour and neglect. There is no one commonly accepted definition of child labour and neglect. The federal government defines child labour and neglect in the child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act as “the physical and mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child under the age of 18 by a person who is responsible for the child’s welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child’s health or welfare is harmed or threatened”. Each state provides its own definition of child labour and neglect. Child maltreatment encompasses physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse.

          Although it is difficult to accumulate precise statistics for child maltreatment nationally, methodology has been developed for accumulating incidence of child maltreatment from the states. Once thought to be a problem involving only a few thousand children a year, child maltreatment has since been identified as nothing less than a national emergency.

          Child labour is harm to, or neglect of a child by another person, whether adult or child. Child labour happens in all cultural, ethnic and income groups. Child labour can be physical, emotional or through neglect. Child labour may cause serious injury to the child and may even result in death. It can also mar the child’s academic achievement in the school.

          The poor academic achievement in the educational sector can not be overemphasized, in particular at primary school level. The Ministry of Education Examinations Development Centre (2008), Enugu revealed that the percentage of failure rate in the past years surpasses that of the percentage of credit level. Below is the analysis of first school leaving certificate result in Nsukka Central of Enugu State. In 2002/2003, the total number of pupils who sat for first leaving school certificate examination was 5257, 2593 were boys, girls were 2664. More than 2000 pupils scored below 40% (Ministry Of Education Examinations Development Centre, Enugu: 2008)

In 2003/2004, the total number of pupils who sat for Exams was 5306 pupils, the number of girls were 2545, boys 2761, 1596 pupils scored below 40%.

In 2008/2009, the total number of pupils who sat for first leaving school certificate examination was 5438, the numbers of boys were 2705, girls 2733. Only 3007 pupils had 40% percent and above, the rest scored below 40% percent. The analysis of first leaving school certificate results for the past seven years below

Motivation, as it relates to students, is very important. Motivation is an internal state that energises a persons behaviour, maintains it and directs it towards a goal so that a state of equilibrium is attained.  Human beings are said to be extrinsically or intrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation is said to be derived internally in the job itself. It is that which is occurs while a person is performing an activity in which he takes delight and satisfaction in doing. Intrinsic motivation is seen as internal reward, while extrinsic motivation is incentive or reward that a person can enjoy after he finishes his work. 

Okoye (1983) opined that motivation holds the key to the understanding of human behaviour. According to him, motivation explains why one individual dodges work, another works normally satisfactorily enough to reach the height, while yet others resort to illegal and unconventional methods of achieving social, academic, economic and political recognition. He added that motivation should be carefully manipulated whether in the work situation or study situation, so that our students are neither under motivated or over motivated but appropriately motivated so as to be useful to themselves in their society and the world at large.

Glasser {1990} theorizes that all motivation springs from an individual’s desire to fulfill one of five basic needs: survival, love, power, fun and freedom. Motivation can be characterized by a student’s personal investment in a given task. The magnitude of motivation is influenced by the psychological environment of a school, that is, by the meaning given to the overall education experiences. Academic performance of students depends not only on the qualities of instruction at schools, provision of educational facilities, intelligent quotients but also on achievement motivation.

Achievement motivation could be seen as self-determination to succeed in what activities one engages in, be it academic work, professional work, sporting activities among others (Gesinde, 2002). Achievement motivation is also based on reaching success and achieving all our aspirations in life (Harackiewicz, Barron, Carter, Lehto and Elliot, 1997).

Burger (1997) states that, achievement motivation is an individual desire to accomplished difficult task, attain high standard and excel oneself. The implication is that high need achievers are moderate risk takers have an energetic approach to work, and prefer jobs that give them personal responsibility to overcome and on the contrary, the opposite is the case. The motivation to achieve, however may be evident only in behaviour that students value. For instance, a child may be highly motivated to achieve and this may be exhibited in athletic but not in school work (Eccles, 2005).

In view of the above definitions, achievement motivation deals with the generalized tendency to strived for success and choose goal oriented success or failure activities. In addition, it is the need for success or the attainment of excellence. However, for the purpose of this work, achievement motivation is defined as the acquired motive patterns resulting from reinforcement schedules in child training that centre around achievement, independence and mastery concern.

Achievement motivation is characterized by a strong desire to assume responsibility for finding solution to a problem, a tendency to set moderately difficulty achievement goals and take calculated risks, a strong desire for concrete feedback on task performance; a single minded preoccupation with task and task accomplishment. The antithesis depicts a preference for low risk level on tasks and for shared responsibilities on tasks {McClelland, 1961, Steer 1980}.