AN ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC INDISCIPLINE AND FAILURE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

1.1 Introduction

Indiscipline is a destructive behaviour which does not promote peace and co-existence in society. This behaviour is a canker to many nations in the world as it is a threat to the lives of these young ones. Many efforts have been made by several world leaders to curtail this growing notoriety especially among school children but it is regrettable to say that there is no single day the media will not report of incidence of indiscipline in newspapers, on the radio and television (Clinard & Meier, 2015). The causes of these acts of indiscipline among pupils as stated by teachers and parents were attributed to the home and school environment, teacher related factors in addition to the other emerging phenomenon outside our Nigerian culture.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

School discipline implies students with a code of behaviour often known as the school rules (Koomson et al., 2005). Again, they state that some of the school rules may set out the expected standards of clothing, time keeping, relationship with peers (both teachers and pupils) and school work. They concluded by saying that there are several of such rules in every school.

Indiscipline, in the view of Ayertey (2002), is a kind of behaviour that deviates from the generally accepted norms as seen in almost all facets of the society; at home, in schools, government and religious places. Keoreng (2004) also contended that indiscipline among school children has become a global problem. He mentioned that the rise of cultism, vandalism, examination malpractices, squandering of school fees by students, and truancy among many others are common among school children. He emphasized that indiscipline children are everywhere. Indiscipline is a behaviour that calls for application of sanctions. Indiscipline is a kind of human behaviour that is purely unethical and not in conformity with the norms and values of the society.

Economic background of the students, Adeyemo 1999 says that there are some students who are house help, so such student find it difficult to come to school early, because they have too many house choose to finish before coming to school. This make them come to school late, there by disobeying the school rules and regulations.In the development of every nation, children are seen as future assets, since they serve as potential human resources to replace the old ones in the near generation. For this to come into realization, it is important to ensure that these young ones are not only preserved but disciplined so they can remain focused in life, sharpen their skills and enhance their talent. In contrast to these expectations from the young ones,

Koomson et al (2005) further asserted that sometimes, the term school discipline may not only apply to code of school rules. They claim the term may also be applied to punishment as a consequence of transgression of the school code of behaviour. For this reason, the usage of school discipline may sometimes mean punishment for breaking school rules. Discipline can be defined as training, especially of the mind and character, to produce self-control habits of obedience, the result of which sets rules for conduct and methods by which training may be given (Kuh et al., 2004).

Indiscipline may be seen as quality of individual always doing things in a wrong way by neglecting the rules and regulations. The oxford advanced learners dictionary, defines it as lack of control in the behaviours of a group of people. In other words, it is the inability of a person to live in accordance with rules. Humidity, there are some student whose parents are naturally bad. That is those parents who make trouble with people outside, insult people and even get to the extent of fighting. Etc. The children of such parents are not expected to be have different from their parents because they will eventually inherit.

Prout & James (2003), in their study, observed growing acts of indiscipline among school children which has become a universal challenge facing many countries. Indeed, the acts of indiscipline could be traced to the early period when individuals became conscious of organizing themselves into groups. This act of moral decadence is evident from several studies, pointing to the fact that the level of indiscipline, especially in schools has escalated (Idu & Ojedapo, 2011; Maphosa & Shumba, 2010).

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics Students Failure and Academic Indiscipline in Secondary School.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that it is with dismay (a worried, sad feeling) to observe the damaged academic indiscipline has done to our schools even our secondary schools which the preparatory stage of higher education. Teachers are not coping well with the implementation of the curriculum, hence the low achievement of the product of secondary schools illiteracy. A close investigation on why our students fail in their Senior Secondary especially on Economics will reveal the fact that most of the students, susceptible i.e influenced or harmed to failure are those who indulge in academic indiscipline such as truancy, lateness to school, fighting, vandalism (crime of destroying or damaging something) and others.

Despite the efforts by the stakeholders to instill discipline in schools, such as strengthening of Board of Management to deal decisively with this problem and training of administers and teachers through workshops, indiscipline has persistently remained a big problem. There are many extreme cases of indiscipline that attract newspapers headlines, there are routine cases of truancy, boycotting of lessons, watching and practicing pornography, lies telling, violence, dishonesty, disobedient to teachers, prefects, and school administration, rapping school/class mates, alcohol consumption, confronting and stabbing teachers in schools, vandalism, lateness to school, cultism, drug abuse, insulting/assaulting, stealing, absenteeism, fighting and other example of indiscipline in the classroom which do not appear or are reported in the Newspapers. Parents blame teachers for the indiscipline among school children and teachers blame parents, government and school administrators for the indiscipline in the society. Student’s misconduct in the Classroom interferes with teaching and learning and is thought to be precursor to later school dropout and similar negative social out-comes.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to assess the Academic Indiscipline and Failure Among Secondary School Students in English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics using Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To investigate the causes of academic indiscipline and failure among secondary school students studying English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics;
2. To determine the factors instigating indiscipline and failure during English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics class in the area under study;
3. To identify the frequent and regular types of indiscipline in secondary schools; and
4. To recommend possible ways of cubing academic indiscipline and failure among secondary school students in Enugu North Local Government.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are there factors instigating indiscipline and failure during English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics class in the area under study?
• What are the causes of academic indiscipline and failure among secondary school students studying English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics?
• What are the frequent and regular types of indiscipline in secondary schools?
• What are the possible ways of cubing academic indiscipline and failure among secondary school students in Enugu North Local Government?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no significant factors instigating indiscipline and failure during English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics class in the area under study
• H1: There are significant factors instigating indiscipline and failure during English Language, Mathematics, Igbo Language, Agricultural Science and Economics class in the area under study

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study is significant to the students, teachers, principals, parents and the society at large. This study would be of immense help to the secondary schools as it would investigate clearly why our students are involved in academic indiscipline and how it relate to their failure in examination It will also want to find out positive and lasting solution towards their being made better examination candidates especially in compulsory subjects like economics.

This study will be of great benefit to teachers and students of economics because the information from this research work will review some important data such as advise the teachers to further their education and get more knowledge on the study of economics and find ways to make it interesting. The teachers in charge of guidance and counseling departments may find this research useful to manage their roles more effectively in modeling the student’s behavior.

The study would also be useful to the government and policy makers in formulating policies that will ensure a disciplined and patriotic behaviour on the part of the students. The findings would provide valuable information to the Ministry of Education as well as to the Teachers Service Commission.

The Ministry of Education may use the findings to influence management of discipline in secondary schools while the Teacher Service Commission may use the findings to influence deployment of head teachers in the country.