THE STANDARD OF PRIMARY EDUCATION AND IT'S EFFECT ON EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1.1 Introduction

Primary education is commonly observed to be an education given to children within their late childhood. This view may justify why the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004b) in her National Policy on Education defined primary education as the education given in an institution for children aged 6 to 11 plus. It went further to explain that the rest of the education system is built upon it and is the key to the success or failure of the whole system. Since mention is made about what happens after primary education there is the need to look at what happens before primary education of the child. It is noted that the education before the child commences primary education is commonly described as ‘early childhood education’ or pre-school education.

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, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Primary education is the foundation a child requires in his or her educational pursuit. The quality of primary education a child gets would determine his performance in secondary school as well as tertiary level. It will equally affect his or her life after school. As such the importance of primary education cannot be overemphasis.

It is in this regard that Malotyre and Clarkj (1996) opined that the attitude of parent determine the quality of education their children or wards receive in primary school. The positive attitude of parent have a positive impact on their children performance and aspiration, help in raising knowledge and increasing understanding and facilitate academic progress through the involvement of parents in their children academic activities. On the other hand negative attitude of parent towards their children education have a negative effect on their academic progress leading to poor academic performance and consequently the withdrawal of such children from school. This makes such children take to street and become menace to the society later in life.

However, Obodochi (2003) opined that most parent in the rural areas of Nigeria are careless about the primary education of their children as such put up negative attitude towards their children’s education at level. This is so because most rural dwellers in Nigeria are more interested in achieving short term immediate development of their children as such prefer sending their children to learn vocational trade or assist them in farm work but parent in urban areas have a positive attitude to education of their children and wards owing to their perception about education and the value they attach to education and its effect on the future of their children.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Standard of Primary Education and It's Effect on Educational Development.

1.3 Statement of Problem

Primary education is the foundation of education and is very vital to a child’s educational development Okoh (2005). But in spite of the importance of primary education to children’s educational development, the attitude of parents towards their children education in unsatisfactory and remains a big impediment to primary education in the area understudy. This is evident in the high rate of street hawking by children of primary school age and enrolment in vocational trade during school hours.

This is attributed to myriad of vague problems ranging from poverty to cultural and religious constraints as well as parents loss of faith in Western educational sequel to the declining standard of education and the high rate of unemployed graduate combing the street in search of jobs endlessly. Hence the attitude of most parents towards the education of their children becomes questionable.

1.4 Aim and Objective of the Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Standard of Primary Education and It's Effect on Educational Development in Warri-South Local Government Area. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To find out the perception of parent about the value of primary education on their children educational development in Kwali Area Council.
2. To evaluate parents involvement in their children academic work in Warri-South district.
3. To determine whether the declining standard of primary education affect parent attitude towards their children education.
4. To identify those parental attitude that is militating against primary education in Warri-South district
5. To make recommendation for practice, policy and future research on the subject matter.

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:

• Does the declining standard of primary education has any effect on parent attitude towards their children primary education?
• Is primary education relevant to the overall development of the child?
• Is primary education relevant to the development of the society?
• Are their challenges facing primary education in contributing towards the overall development of Nigeria?
• What is the perception of parents about the value of primary education in Warri-South district?
• How involved are parents in their children academic work in Warri-South district Primary schools?
• What are those parental attitudes that militate against the primary education of children in Warri-South district?

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 is no significant educational development impact in the standard of primary education in Warri-South district
• H1: There is significant educational development impact in the standard of primary education in Warri-South district

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant standard of primary education toward educational development in Warri-South district
• H1: There is significant standard of primary education toward educational development in Warri-South district

1.7 Significance of Study

The significance of a study of this magnitude cannot be overemphasized. Parents, local government education department, state and federal ministries of education involved in policy formulation and implementation, would find this study really useful especially as they utilize the findings of the study.

The study will equally add to the existing body of knowledge on the subject matter. Students undergoing research work similar to the present study who may wish to use this work as a reference material or a spring board for their own work will find this work really useful.

1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Standard of Primary Education and It's Effect on Educational Development in Warri-South Local Government Area, Delta State.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definition of Terms

All the terms will be defined as they were used in the context of this research.

Parental Attitude: The way parent behaves toward their children primary school.

Parents: This refers to a father, mother or guardian responsibility for the educational training of wards or their children in primary school.

Primary School: School for children between ages of 5 and 11 establish for elementary studies.

School Management: This is an act of getting things done through teachers or the day to day running and administration of primary school.

Educational Policy: This is the statement of government on education.

Educational Leadership: This is the process of formulating and implementing educational polices in primary schools.

Head Teacher: A teacher who is in charge of primary school