1.1 Introduction
Poverty is a reality today and will continue to be a significant factor in our society. There will always be a split in society between those who have and those who have not. Students raised in poverty are indeed more apt to experience emotional and social challenges, mental health issues, chronic stressors in their everyday life, and cognitive lags due to significant changes in their brain structure in areas related to memory and emotion. Poverty has become one of the most prevalent indicators of academic achievement in our schools today. As the number of students raised in poverty increases, it is vitally important that educators be aware of the effects of poverty on student behaviour and learning capacity in the classroom.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Over the past decades, the unfortunate reality is that the income gap has widened between Nigerian families. Educational outcomes are one of the key areas influenced by family income. Children from low-income families often start school already behind their peers who come from more affluent families. The incidence, depth, duration and timing of poverty all influence a child’s educational performance, along with community characteristics and social networks (Evan, 2004). However, both Nigerian and international organizations have shown that the effects of poverty can be reduced using sustainable interventions.
Meanwhile, poverty remains a stubborn fact of life even in rich countries. According to Harris (2006) complex web of social relationships student experience with peers, adults in the school and family members exerts a much greater influence on their academic performance. This process starts with student core relationship with parents or primary caregivers in their lives, which form a personality that is either secure and attached or insecure and unattached. Securely attached children perform better in school (Bali, Granger, Kivlighan, Mills-Koonce, Willongby & Greeberg, 2008). Once students are in school, the dual factors of socialization and social status contribute significantly to academic achievement. The school socialization process typically pressure student to be like their peer or risk social rejection, whereas the quest for high social status drives students to attempt to differentiate themselves in some areas, for example, socio-economic status forms a huge part in this equation. Children raised in poverty rarely choose to behave differently, but are faced daily with overwhelming challenges that affluent children never have to confront and their brains have adapted to suboptimal conditions in ways that undermine good school performance.
The human conditions which we might classify as being in poverty have a long history with a variety of interpretations; these conditions are influenced by a number of factors including resources, contemporary standards and public perceptions of what is minimally acceptable (Evans, 2004).
One of the social issue facing students of poverty is emotional trauma. The emotional climate can often be very stressful and emotionally depriving. The lack of emotional nurturing can lead to feelings of alienation, inadequacy, depression and anxiety. Aggressive or impulsive behaviour and social withdrawal can also result, which in turn can affect their academic performance. However, the overall goal of this study is to provide an insight into the influence of poverty on student academic performance.
Therefore, in Northern Cross River where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Poverty on the Academic Performance of Students.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that strong, secure relationships devoid of poverty and lack help stabilize children’s emotionally and provide the core guidance needed to build lifelong social skills. Children who grew up with such relationships learn healthy, appropriate emotional responses to everyday situations. But children raise in poor homes often fail to learn these responses, to the detriment of their school performance. For example, students with emotional instability may get so easily frustrated that they give up on a task when success was just moments away.
Social dysfunction may inhibit students’ ability to work well in cooperative groups, quite possibly leading to their exclusion by group members who believe they aren’t “doing their part” or “pulling their share of load”. This exclusion and the accompanying decrease in collaboration and exchange of information exacerbate at risk students’ already shaky academic performance. However, the researcher is examining the effects of poverty on the academic performance of the students in Northern Cross River.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Poverty on the Academic Performance of Students of Some Selected Secondary Schools in Northern Cross River. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the effects of poverty on the academic performance of the students in Northern Cross River.
- To determine the factors encouraging poverty in the society.
- To identify other factors affecting the academic performance of the students of Northern Cross River.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the effects of poverty on the academic performance of the students in Northern Cross River?
- What are the factors encouraging poverty in the society?
- What are the factors affecting the academic performance of the students of Northern Cross River?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant relationship between poverty and student’s academic performance
- H1: There is a significant relationship between poverty and student’s academic performance
1.7 Significance of Study
The following are the significance of this study:
- The result of this study will educate the general public on the effects of poverty on the performance of students.
- This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Effect of Poverty on the Academic Performance of Students using Some Selected Secondary Schools in Northern Cross River as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
