THE EFFECT OF CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SOME SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effect of child abuse and neglect on academic performance of secondary school students in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. In carryout this study four research questions were formulated to guide the study. There was a review on the related literature conducted under the following: An overview of child abuse and neglect on the academic performance of students, factors responsible for child abuse and neglect, effects of child abuse and neglect in general. Survey design was used for the study. A sample of 100 teachers from a population of 702 teachers from the affected schools was used. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to the sampled teachers. The responses were analysed using mean and frequency. The results of the data analyses identified family size and home condition as some of the factors that lead to child abuse and neglect. On the effects of child abuse and neglect on academic performance, there were poor performance because their minds were centered on money making ventures they were forced to embark upon. Based on the findings, the researchers recommended that (i) a serious campaign should be mounted against the practice of child abuse and neglect both the government and the school guidance and counseling units (ii) Teachers should be encouraged to take adequate care of children noticed to have been abused and neglected.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education, as defined by Fafunwa (2004), is an aggregate of all the process by means of which a person develops abilities, attitudes, and other forms of behaviour of positive values in the society in which he lives. Whenever we hear of word “Education, the first place our mind goes to, is the school. Most of the time, we tend to think of education in terms of what teachers and their student do in school. Indeed, education is a process that starts the very moment a person or child is born and ends whenever he finally dies. The process of education is which involves a number of activities and people including the teachers, the students, parents, the government and every citizen of the country. Teaching is a key factor in education and learning is another; the first teachers a child ever has are his parents, and the learning process starts as soon as he enters the world. Since the teaching-learning process starts with the child’s parent, the mother in particular matters a lot. For instance, if the mother of the child is an educated one with a good means of livelihood, that is, a good earning, one can be sure that the child will be well fed and taught a lot of things that another child from a less enlightened family is not likely to have.