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Effects of poverty on school children academic performance in Ijebu-Ode local government

Ajayi, Olatunde O., Adediran, Yinka Oluranti & Oriola, Mufutau Oluwakemi
Ajayi, Olatunde O., Adediran, Yinka Oluranti & Oriola, Mufutau Oluwakemi Vol. 12, No. 2 (December 2024) HPU Journal 0 downloads
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ABSTRACT

Poverty poses significant challenges to academic performance among school children, particularly in Ijebu-Ode Local Government, Ogun State, Nigeria. This study delved into the effects of poverty on school children academic performance in Ijebu-Ode. Employing a descriptive survey design, data was collected from junior secondary school students using Students Poverty Scale (SPS) and Student Achievement Test (SAT).

Findings revealed a high level of poverty among students, with many families struggling to afford basic necessities and educational resources. Academic performance was predominantly low, with a majority of students scoring below average. Furthermore, a significant positive relationship was found between poverty and academic performance. These results underscore the detrimental impact of poverty on students' educational outcomes.

Recommendations include efforts to alleviate poverty, strengthen teacher-student relationships, create inclusive classrooms, and provide adequate school resources. Addressing poverty is crucial for improving academic performance and narrowing the achievement gap among students.

Poverty Academic Performance School Children Child Development Education Nigeria Ijebu-Ode

Introduction

Education is a process that helps people develop their abilities, attitudes, and skills. Every child has the right to an education, whether it be western or traditional. As a result, education is seen by humans, other people, and the global community as a part of culture. This underscores the need for man to educate himself and his progeny in order to succeed in society. One of the things that prevents man from performing his educational tasks to the best of his abilities is poverty.

Poverty has been seen as a way of life marked by low calorie intake, lack of access to adequate health facilities, a low-quality education system, low life expectancy, unemployment, and underemployment (Ogwu, 2021). Children raised in poverty are more likely to face emotional and social challenges, chronic stressors, and cognitive lags due to significant changes in brain structure in areas related to memory and emotion (Brito & Noble, 2019; Jensen, 2019). As educators, we must be aware of the effects of poverty in order to put these strategies into practice and lessen the likelihood of lower academic achievement.

Children reared in poverty have numerous obstacles to overcome. Long-term barriers including persistent stressors and structural alterations in the brain that affect emotion and memory are examples of hurdles. Some difficulties are more situational, leading to emotional and interpersonal difficulties. Among the mental health problems are significant rates of depression among low-income parents and kids (Jensen, 219).

Students who have encountered emotional and social difficulties could exhibit disruptive behaviors in the classroom (Jensen, 2019). They could also lack impulse control and be impatient. Because they were raised by a caregiver who was insensitive to their needs, their behavioural reactions may be restricted. Jensen (2019) identified multiple causes for this occurrence. A considerable number of these students may have grown up with an adolescent mother. Having to work several jobs to make ends meet frequently results in parents or caregivers being overworked.

Furthermore, kids who grow up in poverty might not have learned social graces and manners (Jensen, 2019). It's possible that they are not empathetic. As a result, many pupils find it challenging to collaborate effectively with their peers in cooperative groups. Because they can't collaborate well with their peers, these kids frequently end up as unwelcome group members, which exacerbates their feelings of inadequacy and causes them to give up on a task before they can finish it.

Looking at child development from Piaget's theory (1896 – 1980), according to this theory, cognitive development in a child as to be continuous process of unfolding, but with recognized stage or level. At this presence stage of learning student should be given good life in a conducive environment. To him, cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of mental processes which can only be achieved in a through biological maturation and environment experience.

Objectives of the Study

The study ultimately investigated effects of poverty on school children academic performance in Ijebu-Ode Local Government. The specific objectives are to determine:

  1. the level of poverty among the school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government;
  2. the level of academic performance of students in Ijebu-Ode Local Government; and
  3. the relationship between poverty and academic performance of school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government.

Research Questions

  1. What is the level of poverty among the school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government?
  2. What is the level of academic performance of students in Ijebu-Ode Local Government?
  3. Is there any significant relationship between poverty and academic performance of school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government?

Methods

This study used a descriptive survey design as its primary research method. The population for this study is made up of junior secondary school students from Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State. Ijebu-Ode was specifically chosen for this study because it is an urban area and the researcher is acquainted with the locality. From the schools in Ijebu-Ode, ten were chosen at random. From each of the chosen schools, which had 300 students total, thirty junior secondary school students were chosen at random.

For this study, two research instruments were used, namely: Students Poverty Scale (SPS) and Student Achievement Test (SAT). 15 scale statements on the SPS (Students Poverty Scale) were self-designed and were based on the Likert 4-point scale of Strongly Agree(SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). Positively worded phrases receive 4, 3, 2, and 1 points on the scales (SA), (A), (D) and (SD), correspondingly.

The instrument, SAT, was developed by the researcher to measure students' achievement in Mathematics, English and National Value Education and this consists of two sections. Section A sought for the background information of the students such as name, school, sex and local government. Section B consisted of thirty multiple choice items focusing on three general areas: English (10 items) National Value Education (10 items), and Mathematics (10 items).

The reliability of the system was estimated using the Kuder-Richard 21 Formular, which produced a coefficient of 0.72. The data were coded, and descriptive analysis, including frequency count, mean, and standard deviation, were used to analyze the data.

Results

Table 1: Gender distribution of the students
Gender Frequency Percentage
Male 146 48.7
Female 154 51.3
Total 300 100.0

Table 1 presents the gender distribution of the students. It can be seen that 48.7% (146) of the students are males while 51.3% (154) are females.

Research Question 1: Level of Poverty Among School Children

The analysis revealed that 75.3% (226) of the students responded that their families often struggled to afford basic necessities like food and clothing, 89.3% (268) opined that they frequently worried about their family's financial situation while 60.7% (182) of them believed that they did not have access to the same educational resources as their wealthier classmates.

It can equally be seen that 89.3% (268) of the students responded that they sometimes skipped meals due to lack of food at home, 83.3% (250) supported they must work to contribute financially to their families while 70% (210) of them opined that their families could not easily afford their school supplies and textbooks. Moreover, 69.3% (208) of the students believed that poverty significantly affected their academic performance.

Based on this analysis, with weighted mean value of 2.74 and standard deviation (SD) of 0.90, it can be concluded that the level of poverty among the school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government, Ogun state was high.

Table 2: Level of academic performance of students in Ijebu-Ode Local Government
S.No. Marks obtained by students in the SAT Frequency Percent Remark
1 1 – 14 184 61.3 Failed
2 15 – 30 116 38.7 Passed
TOTAL 300 100.0
Key: SAT – Students Achievement Test (Min. Score = 5, Max. Score = 21)
Total Marks Obtainable (n) = 30, Grand Mean = 13.217, Standard Deviation (SD) = 3.685

Table 2 presents the level of academic performance of students in the SAT (Mathematics, English and National Value Education) in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State. With grand mean score of 13.217, standard deviation of 3.683, it can be seen that 61.3% (184) of the students scored below average marks (1 - 14) in the Students Achievement Test while remaining 38.7% (116) scored above average marks (15 - 30) i.e. passed the test. This means that majority of the students did not perform well in the test.

Table 3: Summary of Pearson Product Moment Correlation on the relationship between poverty and academic performance
Variable N Mean S.D. DF r Sig. Remark
Poverty 300 53.692 3.352 298 0.174* 0.039 Significant
Academic Performance 300 13.217 3.685
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 3 presents the result of the significant relationship between poverty and academic performance of school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government. The result shows that there is a significant relationship between poverty and academic performance of school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State (r=0.174, df=298, p<0.05). This implied that poverty is significantly related to the students' academic performance in Ijebu-Ode Local Government.

Discussion

The result of the first research question revealed that the level of poverty among the school children in the local government was high. It was found that majority of the families were oftenly struggling to afford basic necessities, school supplies and textbooks for their wards due to their financial situations. As a result many of these children had to work or support the family in way or the other. Majority of them sometimes skipped meals due to lack of food at home and did not also have access to the same educational resources as their wealthier classmates.

All these will have impact on the thinking, memory, attitude and behaviour of the students. This result is in support of the findings of Brito and Noble (2019) and Jensen (2019) who in their studies reported that children raised in poverty are more apt to experience emotional and social challenges, chronic stressors, and cognitive lags due to significant changes in brain structure in areas related to memory and emotion.

The result of the second research question on the level of academic performance of students in the SAT (Mathematics, English and National Value Education) in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State revealed that majority of students did not perform well in the test. This poor performance of students in the test may be linked to lack of access to basic needs and educational resources that could have hitherto been of great assistance to their academic prowess.

Moreover, from the result of the third research question, showed that there was a significant relationship between poverty and academic performance of school children in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State. This implied that poverty is significantly related to the students' academic performance. This means that the higher the level of poverty among the students, the lower the level of their academic performance and vice versa.

This result is in agreement with the findings of Elumu, Zikusooka and Gibson (2023) who found that poverty of students at home is positively associated with academic performance. They also reported the variables that were found to be significantly associated with academic performance to include feeding conditions, provision of facilities and equipment at school and home related factors.

Conclusion

The study has revealed that poverty has the potentials of affecting the academic performance of students negatively. High level of poverty among students will deprive them the opportunity to have access to basic needs at home and educational resources at school. This may lead to lack of assimilation, attention, focus and concentration in the classroom and which may eventually result to poor academic performance among the students.

Recommendations

In order to improve the academic performance of the students and close the gap created by poverty, the following actions should be taken:

  • The parents should strive and work hard in order to provide the basic needs for their children.
  • The teachers should endeavour to build strong relationships between themselves and their students.
  • They should also create inclusive classrooms where children from both the rich and poor homes have equal opportunity.
  • The government should intensify efforts in organize poverty reduction programmes in order to eliminate poverty among parents and should support the schools with the necessary school equipment and resources in order to improve the management of school activities thus improving the academic performance.

References

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