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EFFECT OF WORKING MOTHERS ON EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The need to make all children have access to quality education has made the Federal Government to re-introduce the universal basic education which provides free and compulsory education for all children to Nigeria from basis one to basic mine. This need has made the various tiers of governments to come out with series of incentives, which would encourage children enrolment in schools (Fagbemi, 2006). The effort of the Federal Government has not yielded any positive results, owing to the fact that the standard of education in Nigeria has been falling rapidly over the years in terms of achievement in writing and oral examinations.

The Nigerian students perform poorly in public examinations such as National Examination Council(NECO), West Africa Examination Council (WAEC,)Joint Admission And Matriculation Board(JAMB) and National Business and Technical Council (NABTEC), and the rate of participation of students in examination malpractices has reached an alarming rate. The scenario that has been painted is that Nigerian students are having interest in malpractices than being studious. This development in the educational system has become an issue in which the stakeholders are searching for what might have been responsible for this. The parents have been seen as one of the main reasons for the lost of virtue in the Nigerian educational system.

The high cost of living has led many women to leave their traditional duties of child upbringing to seek for paid employment. In the traditional African settings, women stay at home and nurture the children (Parker, 2010). Through them, the children learn at first contract the norms and obligations of the society. At this period, the children grow up to be morally competent and hardworking. Today, the need to provide for the well-being of the family as well as for their children has thrown many women into the labour market. Equal access to education has made women to reach highs level in educational and career pursuit. Women are lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects, medical doctors, pilots and so on.

Many of these employments do not give them time to carryout their traditional roles as women in the homes. Thus, they are to depend on the service of the third-party for the well-being of their children. What happen to the children of these working women? Are they able to reach the expected limit in their educational development? Is it possible for working women to have competent children in academics? It is on this note that this study wants to examine the impact of working mothers on their children educational development.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Many have believed that working mothers exert negative influence on their children educational development. Children of women who work are believed to be slow in learning at their early years of growth. These children do not have the privilege to have motherly care and they have less support from their mothers' in terms of being assisted with their home works. Being at home, they are left unsupervised and they are released into the hands of the mass media that do not have positive norms to show to these children.

These children have no help when they need their help of a trustworthy and reliable person who is nothing but their parents. Thus, they engage in every form of social vices because these are what they have learnt from mass media that have become their "foster parents." They smoke, fight, commit sexual immorality, and cheat in examination and many of them are dying of drug, cigarette, sexual abuse, homosexual, drinks, cultism, and street fighting to examine the impact of working mothers on their children educational development.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objectives of this study is to examine the impact of working mothers on the educational development of the children. Specifically, the Sub-objectives of the study include:

     i.        To determine the effect of working mothers on children educational attainment

   ii.        To identify to extent at which mothers' work affect their children moral development

  iii.        To identify whether there is difference in working mothers' impact based on the sex of the children

  iv.        To examine whether mothers' frequent visits to their children's school have effect on the children educational attainment

    v.        To examine whether the children of working mothers involve actively in school activities.

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

HOI:   Working mothers do not have any significant impact on their children's educational attainment

Ho2:   Working mothers do not have any significant impact on their children's moral development

H03: There is no significant difference between working mothers' effect on their children education and the sex of their children

H04: Working mothers frequent visit to their children's schools do not have any impact on their children educational development

H05: Children of working mothers will be actively involved school extra curriculum activities

H06: Children whose mothers are working and highly educated do not do well in their studies like these whose mothers are less educated and are working.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The rate of low academic achievement and lack of moral among the school children in Nigeria are calling for concerted effort to examine the impact of working mothers on their children. These problems have attracted the concerns of the stakeholders in education, family and society. Therefore, this study will provide some insights to all stakeholders in education, family and society by bringing to limelight some basis but unclarified issue regarding the working mothers and their children educational development to that extent, it may hopefully serve as a basis for government in among out with good policy on women who are working and rearing children.  

1.6   Delimitation of Study

This study is delimited to the working mothers  who resides within the Alimosho local government area of Lagos State. This will include various categories of working mothers. Alimosho local government  is one of the 20 local government area of Lagos state as recognized by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

1.7  Limitation of the  Study

The limitation of  study were as  a  result  of reluctant on the side of the respondents to fill the questionnaire, ignorant of some the respondents. Also the problems of time  constraints and distance  to  be covered by the researcher in the course of carrying out this study.  

1.8   DEFINITION OF TERMS

Working mothers: These are women who are mothers and at the same time engage in work.

Impact: This is the influence a variable has on another variable. In this study, it is the influence that working mothers have on their children educational development.

Educational Development: This is the qualitative and quantitative development of the children in terms of what they acquire in education.

NECO : National Examination Council

WAEC : West Africa Examination Council

JAMB : Joint Admission and Matriculation Board

NABTEC: National Business and Technical Educational Council  

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