THE CAUSES AND EFFECT OF STREET HAWKING ON CHILDREN OF SCHOOL AGE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Nigeria as a developing country needs people who are required for the political social and economic development of the country. This is necessary because Nigeria no longer need money bag citizens, rather she needs men and women and enough money for the peoples comfort. In order to achieve this, school or formal education for all in Nigeria is mandatory and necessary. It is not important that all Nigeria citizens in Benin city in particular get full formal education and not partial education which leads to school drop out and human wastage or attrition going by the national policy on education which recognizes hat greater achievement are get and most explanted through formal education is essential to Nigerians and so have made primary education in government schools free for its citizens. Looking at the economic problems in Nigeria today many familiar most especially those in the low socio- economic classes engaged their children and weeds in various activities such as hawking Hawking according to the oxford advanced learners dictionary, 6th edition, means moving to sell things by going from place to place asking people to buy them.

However, Olalere (2007) identified two main types of hawkers which are; the hawkers that carry their goods in wheels and the side walk hawkers who sit with their wares beside the road. According to Olalere, the capital out lay for types of trade is determined by nature of goods traded in. the hawker builds cart to suit his or her purpose The hawker also employs different media of advertising their wares like; buy your sweet orange, the hawker may also decided to short the goods of their names in the manner peculiar and appealing to people. Many of there hawkers sell different goods, which one might not go out ordinary to buy, except on impulse basis if we come across them on the way. For the side of the hawker, they sit by their goods and attend to those who come to them. The capital required is determined by the nature of the wares for instance Fifty Naira N50, OO would appear sufficient for a side hawker who is trading in orange while a provision seller who sells beverages would require a higher outlay.

The hawker business grows increasing by in many Nigerian cities and towns. Hawking also take place in the rural areas but are mostly alone in the evenings when people are back from the farm, village markets or school. The situation is ever different in urban areas. Hawking goes on in the urban area from morning to evening on a daily basis. This situation has no doubt affected the child’s schooling specifically another important aspect of the child’s developmental stage. Ajayi and Orphan and a year two student in the department of banking and finance of the university of Benin who sells news papers daily among the street says “we do this thing (hawking) everyday in order to survive in school and to help our younger siblings at home who are not even in schools. These developments are making life unbearable form as I have always with drawn from school several times. Similarly, a child who shares the school time with street hawking is always late to school and he or she is bound to develop immaturities in school work which may include poor studying habits, lack of skills, low self esteem and low performance in class hence resulting in failure or total dropping out of school. It has been heard of that some parents in towns and cities withdrawn their children from school in order to send them hawking so as to make more money for the family up keep.

In some cases, some children are always dropped out from school for a term or even a whole year and when they get back to school (that if they go back to it all) they become too big for their cohort and they fall victims of name calling by younger classmates. This type of situation could have many negative effects on the children psychologically who became under achiever or might develop school phobia. Such children at the end of the day fail or drop out at the end of day. The search for money to make ends meet in a depressed economy is obviously one of the major reasons for parent and guardians sending their children or wards to hawk. Most of the hawkers are either in primary/ secondary school for the purpose of hawking and at each day sales the children becomes weak and tired that they are unable to concentrate, contribute to discussion or study on their own. Apparently, parents and guardians do not realize this and children do not know that the means by which the mental. Moral, social and material inheritance of the society can be passed from generation to generation is through formal education.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The majority of Nigerian parents believe that children are their God sent helpers both for economic purpose and other wise. This is why many Nigerians want to have children until old age. Most average Nigerians do not consider street hawking by children and some other child labour practices are seen as part of the socialization process in the society. This brings the question to mind that, most of the parents whose children are participating in street hawking may have been street hawkers themselves in their life. Thus, the use of their wards or children as hawkers may largely reflect their value representation. In Nigeria today, hawking by children of school age is not entirely new in society. Street hawking creates room for lack of seriousness and interest in school work, poor memory, learning difficulty and under achievement the problem of this study therefore is to investigate the relationship between street hawking and drop out.