effect of deviant behaviours on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students

Effect of deviant behaviours on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society. Education also is the way the culture and tradition of the people is being presented to the students. Every child therefore grows in the society and in the process of growth the child gains empowerment through school learning. Stakeholders in education industry such as government, parent, missionaries, and proprietors of schools had invested a huge sum of money and materials to ensure high performance of a student under their care (Bola, 2015). There has always been diversity in the performance of the student in secondary schools. While some student performs very well, others do the opposite and in some cases, the student is withdrawn from school for low performance. Various reasons have been attributed to this failure. Among them include the different levels of intelligence, some socio-economic factors, the school environment, students’ attitudes, and student deviant behaviors.

Also, the increasing rate of anti-social behaviours in the society, particularly among Nigerian youths is alarming. It has become a common phenomenon to read, hear or witness deviant behaviours among secondary school students such as lying, stealing, fighting, promiscuity, bullying, truancy, alcoholism, lack of respect for elders among others. Today, deviant behaviours among teenagers have become a thing of concern to parents, teachers and other people in the society as the problem gets more serious year by year. In every society, there are sets of norms which members are expected to observe but not every member of the society abides by those norms. Members who live contrary to the set norms are referred to as deviants. In spite of the good objectives for the inclusion of social studies, civic education, religious studies etc in the school curriculum to ensure moral development of learners, the society still faces various challenges among which are deviant behaviours among the students.

Deviant behavior simply means behaviour that students do that goes against the standard of the society, regardless of whether the action is legal or illegal. Michael, (2016) defines deviant behavior as that type of behavior that is contrary to norms and the rules of the society. Deviant behaviour according to Kendall (2019) is a behaviour that deviates from the norms of a particular people in the society or community. Crossman (2018) describes deviant behaviour as any behaviour that is contrary to the dominant norms of society. Deviance also means violation or drift from the accepted societal norms, especially when it comes to the social or se*ual behaviours (Wikipedia, 2018). From these definitions, deviance means behaviour that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. It implies violation of rules and norms. From observation, deviant behaviours can negatively influence students’ learning outcomes due to display of some that are directly related to learning in the classroom such as cheating during examinations, lateness, truancy, fighting, causing trouble or violence, stealing, wearing dirty uniform and disobedience. Deviant behaviours among students can also include breaking rules, getting involved in wrong, illegal or immoral activities, substance use or abuse, criminal activity and deviant behaviour. Getting involved in any of these disallows students from focusing on academic activities.

When deviance persists, especially in the form of verbal abuse of teachers, disruptive classroom behaviour, noncompliance with school rules and regulations, teachers and students cannot function effectively. Deviance, when left unchecked erodes the very system which is charged with the responsibility of fostering and developing responsible, caring and intelligent individuals who can contribute meaningfully to the development of the society. As such, a concerted effort must be made by stakeholders to arrest the problem of deviance as it exists today, if a more progressive and prosperous society is to be re-built. Ajuzie (2005) submits that deviance should be eradicated or put under control in the society. She argues further that the best a society could do in order to achieve this is to undertake application of knowledge to practical ends, through corrections, development of policies and programmes for combating crime to reform, remobilize and to treat deviants. Education is the most important tool to prevent young generation from being manipulated by these anti-social behaviours in the society.

Preventing adolescents from deviant behaviours can improve their learning progress and abilities to acquire knowledge. According to Chikwature, Oyedele and Ganyani (2016), good behaviour is essential in a school if children are to be able to fulfil their learning potential. Poor and disruptive behaviour in the classroom reduces children’s ability to concentrate and absorb information and it unsettles children and causes immense stress for teachers. The authors affirm that children who are excluded from school because of their behaviour underachieve academically and are at a high risk of disengagement from education and from making a positive contribution to society. Persistent poor behaviour in schools can have far reaching and damaging consequences for children and can limit their horizons.

Various studies had been carried out on deviant behaviours among secondary school students by several authors. In a study conducted in Zambia, Banda and Mweemba (2016) confirm prevalence of deviant behaviours such as smoking, beer drinking, fighting, class boycotts, school riots, teacher assault, general theft, students patronizing bars, late coming, wearing wrong uniform and girl/boy intimate relationship among students. Other identified deviant behaviours include examination malpractice, improper dressing, and rudeness, use of abusive language and destruction of school properties. It has been observed by the researcher that deviant acts perpetrated by students in the secondary schools in Nigeria are likely to be responsible for the downward turn in their learning outcomes. In support of this observation, Watanbe (2008) found that there is a statistically significant difference between deviant and non-deviant students in test scores where the mean test scores show that deviant students achieve lower test scores than non-deviant students. Apart from this, most of the observed deviant behaviours attract punishment can range from kneeling down, taking some strokes of the cane, suspension, manual labour among others. Such punishments waste students time and stop them from participating in learning or other classroom activities. The above data therefore formed the basis which this present research is carried out to investigate into effect of deviant behaviours on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area.

1.2     Statement of the Problem                                                                     

Deviant behaviours have constituted a problem that has led to student’s attrition, late arrival at school, and low learning outcomes. Other related behaviours among students that are also of concern include, aggression, theft burglary, destruction of school property, truancy, rudeness and se*ual harassment. These negative behaviours are observed amongst male and female students of different age categories and locations. Deviant behaviours are also linked to quality of teaching and learning in the classrooms.

Quite often, school boys break into school offices and staff common rooms, with the intention of stealing textbooks, examination scripts and exercise books. Most of the times, these boys or children get caught, when luck elude them. These behaviors of children significantly affect their learning outcomes. Therefore this research seeks to find out; the circumstances that normally get them involved in deviant behaviors for lessons to be deduced, whether they affect their learning outcomes in business studies. This therefore leads to an investigation into effect of deviant behaviours on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students

1.3     Purpose of Study  

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of deviant behaviours on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area. Specifically, the study sought to:

1. To investigate the influence of truancy on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students;
2. To determine the influence of drugs use on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students