CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Education has been
viewed by scholars based on their perceptions of what education is about.
Castle (1995) sees education as what happened to us from the day we were born
to the day we die. Nwachi (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 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 brokenhomes
retard the progress of those children from such background in that both parents
are not on ground to direct and guide the child towards the achievement of
educational goals. It is agreeable or believed that children from 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, this child is entrusted to other people that are different from his parents.
This person is expected to play the role of a surrogate parents despite his/her
commitment of 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-father or step mother. The frustration of such a child knows no bound.
At home under surrogate parents he is discriminated and suffers some
psychological deprivations, he carried 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 and presented at school.
Apart from frustration,
discouragement and deprivations, the child may also be malnourished and
segregated by surrogate parent (i.e. mother) who feel that she is wasting the
family resources in 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 that 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, hence, the child may resort to
play truancy.
Since 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 become irritable, fearful, aggressive and
withdrawn (Cole and Cole 1993, Van der Zanden 1980). Studies further confirm
that children in one parent household not only do or perform poorly in school
because they tend to lack self-control, but also become disruptive in the class
rooms, instead of paying attention to what is being taught in class, they are
busy disturbing others who are ready to learn. In addition, it is also reported
that two years immediately after a mother’s marriage break up, the mother
exercise less control over her children than
she did before (Hetherington, Cox and Cos, 1982).
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.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The family has enormous
amount of influence on the education of the child both directly and indirectly.
In the preschool or formative years of the child, the home transmit culture and
knowledge to the child correcting him where he goes wrong and directing him in
other various aspects of his life in the society.
However, broken homes
are very common ranging. From voluntary separation, desertion, ejection,
divorce etc. the problem therefore is that broken homes have really caused a
setback in the education of the children born into these families, thereby
affecting the academic performance of
these students.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The study is to examine
the problems associated with broken homes and how it affects the education of
children from such homes, it is hoped and believed that this study will
enlighten teachers of the problems children from broken homes have to contend
with,with a view to helping them adjust properly to learning situation.
The study is equally
aimed at highlighting the unstable homes and its adverse effect on the
education of children from such homes and to intimates parents with the
problems associated with broken homes in order to minimize separation and
divorces.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i.
To what extent does broken home affect
the academic achievement of student?
ii.
How does maltreatment from step parents
contribute to the students’ academic performance in school?
iii.
What are the significant differences in
the average academic performance of students from broken homes and students
from unbroken homes?
iv.
What are the problems associated with
broken homes?
v.
How can these problems be minimized?
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Due to financial and
time constraints the study is limited to selected schools in Abeokuta North
Local Government Area of OgunState, the study is also limited to material
resources available to the researcher during the course of the study.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is expected that the
research work would serve as a reference to those who may carry out similar
research in the future. The rate of marriage failure is on the increase in our
modern society. As the saying goes “when two elephants fight on the grass, it
is the grass that suffer? What becomes of children born to such a family is
nobody’s concern. It is therefore pertinent that a timely study be carried out
in order to give useful suggestions and recommendation to teachers on how to help
such unfortunate children to learn properly in school so that they can come out
with a good academic performance in school for themselves and be useful to the
society as well.
As a matter of fact
institution s like UNICEF, Ford foundation and others have shown genuine
interest and concern for Western Children in similar conditions like those in
Africa. The impact of these aforementioned organizations has not been felt in
most parts of Nigeria as a nation. It is therefore necessary that a radically
guided research of this nature be carried out in this part of the world.
This dearth of search
is also the rational for this study in order to expose the problems of the
broken homes and a resultant consequence of the education of children from such
homes. It will help in finding solution to problems identified.
Lastly, it will expose
teachers to the problems discussed and its effects on education, with a view to
working out modality of helping students from such background to learn better.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Marriage:
it is the legal relationship between a husband and wife
Home:
the house or apartment that one lives in, especially with your family
Learning:
a relatively pertinent to permanent change in the behavior of an individual as
result the learning.
Performance:
This is the ability to successfully carry out a given task following
instructions.
Standard:
This concept is used in the research to mean the expected level of quality or
specified level of academic excellence and its attainment in the system.