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EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education is the best legacy a country, society or parent can give to its citizenry or child. It 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 been regarded as a 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. Odia and Omofonmwan (2007), asserted that, the standard of education in Nigeria has become a thing of great concern to the nation for decades now. They further observed that, decline in the standard, deterioration of facilities, mass promotion syndrome, teachers truancy and the like before any other thing else, are the sets of thoughts that come to mind when the issue of Nigeria educational system is raised.

The problem of poverty in Africa has over the years engaged the attention of the international community, governmental and non-governmental Agencies, including Nigerians Scholars. Poverty is one of the factors militating against man from carrying out his educational activities perfectly (Aluko, 2003). 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 (2003) is 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. Lero and Symes (2004) considered poverty as major anti-risk factors relating the concept poverty to Nigeria, it will therefore be considered in broader way which implies that it has been viewed in various perspectives, which include ones 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 reach certain stage of development in terms of infrastructure and other development indices. As regards 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 (Aluko, 2003).

The role of the home cannot be over emphasized because the general assumptions that states of poverty in the family or home goes a long way to determine the extent of students educational development vi-avis parental efficiency or productivity in their place of work, and contrary to conventional wisdom, female teachers poor performance is not necessarily a result of inadequate infrastructure, or teachers qualification, but largely an outcome of poverty by teachers on the Teachers’ Service Commission’s payroll observed Oguw (2005). Many teachers and most especially the female teachers might be in school or even in class, but they don’t teach. Absenteeism is another issue as most of the teachers engaged in menial business to augment their little salary in order to meet with the household demands.

Education is seen by many as the route to alleviate poverty, there is no doubt that many feel education is the most potent instrument for alleviating and eventually abolishing poverty, but in this case where most of the drivers or implementers of the school curriculum are themselves not spared by this chronic disease called poverty. What then is the hope of our educational system? In view of this, the interest of the researcher is on the effect of poverty on female teacher’s performance in secondary schools with particular reference to Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Evidence shows that in Nigeria, the number of those in poverty has continued to increase every year, in 1999, when Nigeria nascent democracy began, it was estimated that more than 70% of Nigerians lived in poverty. In the recent years, it has been a controversy through in the mind of people that if the poor status of any society or nation, even family can really have an impact on the performance of female teachers.

For most Nigerians, poverty is endemic, is real and devastating, for a large percentage of the population, there is no food, housing and health security. Life involves struggle against hunger and a total lack of housing which leads to unprecedented increase in teacher’s absenteeism and consequently dwindling performance.

This ugly trend has become a serious problem because it constitutes an obstacle to rapid economic development of a nation as it usually affects both performance of the teachers and productive of the school products (graduates from the system) negatively.

The continues decline in the standard of education ranging from mass failure, students involvement in examination-practice, increase in both teachers and students truancy and the sharp drop in moral decadence are concerns for worry.

1.3       PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of poverty on the performance of female teachers in some selected secondary schools in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

The specific of objectives of this study is to find out;

1.   How poverty affects female teachers performance.

2.   Whether female teacher’s performance can really be affected by any economic standard of the nation.

3.   The major causes of poverty, and

4.   To provide possible suggestion, in enhancing or improving the performance of female teachers by bringing out strategies to reduce poverty.

1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

For proper examination of this study, the following research questions have being formulated to serve as a guide in the conduct of the investigation;

1.   Why is poverty linked to female teachers?

2.   What are the major causes of poverty?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

3.   How does poverty affect performances of female teachers?

4.   How can the economic status of female teachers be improved to enhance their performance?

1.5       RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Hoi There is no significant relationship between economic of the nation and the performance of female teachers.

Hoii female teacher’s performance is not independent of their financial status.

1.6       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is very important when looked at from the concept of poverty and three various factors, the national level, the community level and the home level or family background which influences teacher’s performance and their daily needs. It is hoped that study will be immense benefit to the Ministry of Education as it will definitely identified some of the essential factors existing in the various levels as they influence female teachers in their performance.

          To the government, the findings of this study will help the government to incorporate parents in planning and other non-governmental agencies on issues influencing teacher’s performance, in enhancing or improving the female teacher’s performance bring out strategies to alleviate poverty.

          The teachers will also benefit from the findings of the study because it will reveal their role in the eradication of poverty and the harm their absenteeism as well as truancy has caused on the educational system and the student’s academic attainment.

          The findings of this study will go a long way in improving the students who are at the receiving end of every educational policies and other activities that take place in the school environment. Also the teachers that form part of the parents knows best the environment under which students at home will learn and other variable affect their performance.

          The society will hopefully benefit from the findings of this study because poverty has become serious problem in Nigeria. The people life span has shorten, and there are social, political and economic difficulties. Begging has become a vocation to many who now live on the street. One way of solving the problem of poverty is to make education more viable and to introduce measures aimed at ameliorating and equitable distribution of resource.

1.7       DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study is limited to the effects of poverty on female teacher’s performance in some selected secondary schools in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. The research is been restricted to the effects of poverty because of the rate of female teachers absenteeism, truancy among teachers and students, and the continuous decline in the standard of education in Nigeria and Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State in particular. This study will therefore not looked into other factors affecting teacher’s performance but limit itself to effects of poverty.

1.8       OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following terms are defined as used in this project work.

Poverty: A way of life characterized by low calories intake, inaccessibility to adequate health facilities, low quality of educational system, unemployment to various housing and societal facilities.

Female Teachers: They can be described as a set of persons employed either on full time or part time basis in an official capacity to guide and direct the learning experiences of pupils or students in the school and some of them are N.C.E, B.ED, Master or PhD holders respectively in different field ranging from Humanities, Natural Science, Social Sciences, Education to name among others.

Performance: It refers to a particular accomplishment or achievement in teaching and learning situation or environment usually carry out by the teachers in the classroom situation or settings.

Status: The legal position of persons, group or a country.

Teacher: A teacher can be described as a person whose job is teaching especially in the school.

Effects: It refers to a situation whereby you bring something to pass to execute; to enforce, and lastly to achieve or accomplish a specific task.

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