CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Education is a process through which individual acquires skills, competencies, and attitude. It is the right of every child to be educated, be it traditional or western. Thus, education is regarded as culture to man, people and the nation of the world at large. This explains why man has to educate himself and his offspring in the society. Poverty is one of the factors militating against man from carrying out his educational activities perfectly. Because of the various perception and complexities of the term poverty, a universally agreed definition cannot be arrived at. But then poverty according to the oxford advanced learners’ dictionary (2019) defined poverty as the state of being poor.

Mike (2015) sees poverty as a way of life characterized by low calorie intake, inaccessibility of adequate health facilities low quality education system, low life expectancy, unemployment and under-employment. Leroy and Symes (2018) consider poverty as a major anti-risk factors relating the concept poverty to Nigeria, it will therefore be considered in a broader way which implies that it has be viewed in various perspectives which include one national state and home background. At the national level, a nation can be considered poor when her economic standard is very low and this automatically makes the nation underdeveloped. The economy of a country that does not reached certain stage of development in terms of infrastructure and other development indices. As regard poverty in the family level, we are referring to the home background.  Even before the indigenous education or western type of education, the home has always been the agency through which man learns various aspect of life to enable him live a meaningful life in his environment. The home which is also known as traditional way of educating the young ones is still regarded as the first school of a child before he enters the larger society.

The role of the home cannot be over emphasized because the general assumptions that states of poverty in the family or home goes to a long way to determine the extent of youth or students educational development. Education is seen by many as the route to alleviate poverty. There is no doubt that meaningful; education is the most potent instrument for alleviating and eventually abolishing poverty. In considering the impact of poverty on academic performance of students to be precise, the home background is the most important phenomenon that needs to be seriously considered in order to enhance the effective study of the relationship between poverty and students’ academic performance.

It is clear that poverty is highly associated with deprivation in various aspects of quality of life. Thus, dealing with poverty is the main instrument that can effectively eliminate deprivation and inequalities in human well-being (Bello, 2017). Poverty has degraded lives for centuries, and human deprivation is still persistent in the developing countries of the world (Sachs, 2018), about 800 million people do not get enough to eat and more than a half billion are chronically malnourished. Poverty involves not only lack of the necessities of natural well-being, but denial of opportunities for living a tolerable life which can be prematurely shortened. Poverty can be made difficult, painful or hazardous. It can be robbed of dignity Confidence and self-respect as well as the respect for others. All are aspects of poverty that limit the lives of millions in the world today. Farooq, Chaudhry, Shafiq and Berhanu (2014) defined poverty as the state of being poor. Hence, lack of resources can includes of resources as financial, emotional and mental as well as support system relationship, therefore, poverty in plain and ordinary language means lack of sufficiency of resources relative to human needs. Chambers (2016) classified poverty into four groups: Income poverty (or its common proxy, consumption poverty); Material lack or want: besides income, this includes absent, limited or low quality assets (such as shelter, clothing, furniture, personal means of transport, radio, etc.). It also includes inadequate access to services. Capability deprivation, referring to what people can or cannot do, or can or cannot be. Leroy and Symes (2018) consider poverty as a major anti-risk factors. Relating the concept poverty to Nigeria, it will therefore be considered in a broader way which implies that it has to be viewed in various perspectives which include national, state and home background. At the national level, a nation can be considered poor when her economic standard is very low and this automatically makes the nation underdeveloped. Operationally, poverty is persistent and unbearable situation that fallout on or after numerous unfavorable interdependent danger which causes and influences individuals mind, body, and soul. Thus, poverty calls for key information and immediate strategies, not acceptance and dejection. It is also defined as lack of basic human needs, such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, shelter, transportation etc poverty is said to exist when people or individual lack the means of satisfying basic needs. On the other hand, poverty involves a difficult range of hazard factors that unfavorably have an impact on the inhabitants in a large number of ways and therefore

Interestingly, it is the right of every citizen to be educated; therefore, there is a need for people to educate themselves and their offspring in the society. But poverty is one of the factors militating against good and functional educational activities perfectly, because of the various perception and complexities of the term poverty. Moreso, the current wave of globalization has greatly improved the lives of women worldwide, particularly the lives of women in the developing world. Nevertheless, women remain disadvantaged in many areas of life including in education, employment, health and civil rights. According to United State Agency for International Development and the World Bank, 57 parents of the 72 million primary school aged children who do not attend school are females (Mike, 2015). Additionally, girls are four percent less likely than boys to complete primary schools as a result of poverty rate in the world (Global Education Mentoring Report (2016). Therefore, females have the lowest chance of getting education than males and less likely to access school, to remain in school or to achieve education. Despite almost 30 years of the convention on the elimination of all-forms of discrimination against women and 20 years of the convention on the rights of the child.

Academic achievement is the extent to which an individual performs in a given academic task. The performance most often is related to the height one reaches in the line of academics. In support of the explanation of academic achievement, Okeke (2012:69) considered it to be “an individual’s performance in class tests as well as the level of education ultimately attained”. This definition makes it more understandable that it refers to whatever the individual performance in class tests or examinations and also the highest level of education the individual has acquired.

Poverty negatively affects academic performance of students in many ways. Poverty impedes proper human development in physical, mental language and social domains (Moyo, 2012). Similarly, academic performance is also grossly affected by poverty in the sense that poor parents fail to provide adequate financial and material resources that are a pre-requisite to admission at school. Moyo (2012) posited that the poor tend to suffer from severe health problems directly linked to mental and physical impairments and other birth defects. However, this means that the shortage of adequate nutritional food leads to malnutrition which impedes proper mental and physical development. AffulBroni (2012) points out that poverty is associated with a number of educational disadvantages that entail poor attitudes to school, low academic skills, little interest in formal lessons and pessimism on the part of parents. On the other hand, lack of motivation on the part of students and parents leads to academic incompetence by poor students and active parental support. The absence of these two aspects yields low levels of academic performance of students. What emerges from this background is that poverty is an overall forum of deprivation cutting across the physical, mental, economic and social needs.

It is in line with the above discussions that this study seeks to examine the effects of poverty on the academic performance of secondary school students in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.

1.2.Statement of the Problem

Evidence shows that in Nigeria, the number of those in poverty has continued to increase every year. By 1999, when the government came into power, it was estimated that more than 70% of Nigeria lived in poverty. In recent years, it has been a controversy that if the poor status of any society or nation, even family can really have an impact on the students’ educational performance. In view of this, the study intends to investigate the effects of poverty on the student’s academic performance. This is because the diversity of the word poverty by different scholars who have used it in their course of study and how it has affected the learning and performance of the students in their educational development. Poverty is detrimental to school performance in Secondary Schools in Mangu Local Government Area. Students from poor families suffer from starvation at home, have no proper uniforms and fail to meet payment deadlines. These problems negatively affect their learning progress hence poor performance in school.

• Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to examine the effects of poverty on the academic performance of students in some selected secondary schools in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, considering this globalization, we cannot sit down and watch posterity destroyed by poverty. It is in this view that the researcher intends to achieve the following objectives:

1. To find out whether the delay in students’ payment of schools fees and other levies promptly has any effects on their academic performance
2. To determine the effects of poverty on school attendance of students.

• To examine the extent to which the inability of students to afford good feeding affect their academic performance.

1. To find out the effects of poverty on academic performance of students.
2. To find out means through which poverty can be reduced to the barest unit.
   • Research Questions

The research was guided by the following research questions:

1. To what extent does the delay in students’ payment of schools fees and other levies promptly has any effects on their academic performance?
2. What are the effects of poverty on school attendance of students?
3. To what extent does the inability of students to afford good feeding affect their academic performance?
4. What are the effects of poverty on academic performance of students?
5. What are the means through which poverty can be reduced to the barest unit?
   • Research Hypotheses

For the purpose of the study, the following hypotheses was formulated and will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.

H₀: There is no significant relationship between poverty and academic performance of secondary school students in Mangu Local Government Area

• Significance of the Study

The importance of this study cannot be underemphasized especially now that education stakeholders are throwing searchlight in all directions to determine causes of academic failure. Therefore, the study will be of benefit to education stakeholders such as students, counsellors, school administrators, government and future researchers.

Students who are at the centre of this research will benefit from this study as measures taken by other education stakeholders such as teachers, administrators, counsellors will be in their favour which will be geared towards enhancing their academic performance.

Counsellors will come to understand the psychological, sociological and economic effects of poverty which in turn influences the academic performance of secondary school students in Mangu Local Government Area. Therefore, they will structure counselling sections for the children from poor homes in order to surmount these effects of poverty on their academic performance. Furthermore, they will serve as an advisory body to the school management on measures of enhancing academic performance of children from poor homes

The school administrators will also benefit from this study because their quest for reasons behind differential performance of students could emerge at the end of this study. They will now see reasons why some students from rich homes perform better than those in poor homes.

Government will benefit from this study because there are no schools without a government. The government will see reasons why measures must be taken to lift people from the poverty levels. This will be done in terms of creation of more jobs, provision of capital in form of loans for small and medium businesses in Mangu Local Government Area.

Finally, when this study is completed, it will serve as a reference material to future researchers who will want to carry out further study on similar topics. It will add to the already existing body of literature review on effects of poverty on the academic performance of secondary school students.

• Scope of the Study

This study covers effects of poverty on the academic performance of secondary school students. The study is restricted to 10 selected secondary schools in Mangu Local Government Area. Other variables that shall be examined in the course of the study are the psychological effects of poverty on academic performance, social effects of poverty on academic performance and economic effects of poverty on academic performance of students. However, despite the fact that the study is restricted to some secondary schools in Mangu Local Government Area, its findings will be generalized to other local governments areas within the state and even other parts of Nigeria as a whole where they have the same population characteristics.

The challenges that the researcher faced in the cause of study was financial and time constraints.

1.8. Operational Definition of Terms

Effects: This is the result of a phenomenon or an event which leaves a mark which can be identified.

Poverty: This is the state of lack or being poor. When someone is poor, they cannot afford the basic things in life.

Academic Performance: This is the extent to which an individual excels academically. The academic performance could either be high or low.

Academic: This refers to matters of education. it is everything that has to do with the institution of learning like the secondary school.

Socio-Economic: Is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general, it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local or regional economy, or the global economy.

Student: It is primarily a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution and who is under learning with goals of acquiring knowledge.