Deviant Behaviours and Academic Performance of Students in Business Studies

Deviant Behaviours and Academic Performance of Students in Business Studies

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 society and in the process of growth the child gains empowerment through school learning. Stakeholders in the education industry such as the government, parents, missionaries, and proprietors of schools had invested a huge sum of money and materials to ensure the 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 While some student performs very well, others do the opposite and in some cases, the student is withdrawn from school for low performance.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 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, and 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 society as the problem gets more serious year by year.

In every society, there are sets of norms that 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 the moral development of learners, society still faces various challenges among which are deviant behaviours among the students.

When deviance persists, especially in the form of verbal abuse of teachers, disruptive classroom behaviour, and 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 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 rebuilt.

Deviant Behaviours and Academic Performance of Students in Business Studies

Ajuzie (2005) submits that deviance should be eradicated or put under control in society. She argues further that the best society could do in order to achieve this is to undertake the application of knowledge to practical ends, through corrections, the development of policies, and programmes for combating crime to reform, remobilize and 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 the 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 secondary schools in Nigeria are likely to be responsible for the downward turn in their learning outcomes. In support of this observation, Watanabe (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 that attract punishment can range from kneeling down, taking some strokes of the cane, suspension, and 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

Quite often, students break into school offices and staff common rooms, with the intention of stealing textbooks, examination scripts, and exercise books. Most of the time, these students get caught when luck eludes them and in some cases, female students are involved in prostitution leading to absenteeism and other behaviours. The behaviors of students significantly affect their learning outcomes. Therefore this research seeks to find out:

the influence of truancy on academic performance; and the influence of drug use on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students particularly in Business Education. This, therefore, leads to an investigation into the effect of deviant behaviours on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area.

1.3 Purpose of Study

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

To investigate the influence of truancy on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students;
To determine the influence of drug use on academic performance in business studies of secondary school students in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions were posed to guide the study;

To what extent does the academic performance of students who are truants differ from those who are not truants?
To what extent does the academic performance of students who abuse drugs differ from those who do not abuse drugs?

1.5 Statement of Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were postulated to guide the study;

There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students who are truants and those who are not truants.
There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students who abuse drugs differ from those who do not abuse drugs.

1.6 Significance of the study

This study will be of great benefit to the following people in the following ways:

The study will expose the students to the harmful effects of deviance on Academic Performance and thus serve as a cautionary measure for students.
Through this study students and teachers at the secondary school level will know how to practically use the content of the Business Studies curriculum to instill desirable behaviour in students, and correct and remold the deviant students among them.
The results of this study will help teachers to understand more and will find it easy to deal with different categories of learners from different homes.
The curriculum planners would benefit since it will provide a basis for them to design the curriculum, bearing in mind various behaviour of individuals and possibly plan a realistic strategy for achieving the objective and goals of education. Thus, society stands to benefit from this study, as there will be a farewell to some of the unwanted behaviours that will tend to hinder the performance of the students.
The knowledge gained from this study will assist the government to design policies and programs which will help enhance family cohesion so the parent will be able to relate better with their children, this will help the development of well-behaved individuals by modifying their behavior properly.
The study will serve as an important reference to researchers who wish to further study in this area.