Abstract
This study investigated the eects of poverty on the performance of female teachers in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. Fourresearch questions were stated and two hypotheses formulated. Survey design was adopted for the study to accommodate the use of questionnaire for data collection. Simple percentage and Chi-square statistics were employed for data analysis and the following findings emerged critical analysis; low level of educational qualification of female teachers and shortage of funds to compliment the available instructional materials, female teacher’s absenteeism form some of it resultant eects. Some recommendations were posed among which is the government and educational authority of Ijumu LGA should organize seminars or workshops for all teachers, men inclusive on the benefit of investing in skills acquisition to improve their pedagogy.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education is the best legacy a country, society or parent can give to its citizenry or child. It is a process through which individual acquires skills, competencies, and attitude. It is the right of every child to be educated, be it traditional or western. Thus, education is been regarded as a culture to man, people and the nation of the world at large. This explains why man has to educate himself and his ospring in the society. Odia and Omofonmwan (2007), asserted that, the standard of education in Nigeria has become a thing of great concern to the nation for decades now. They further observed that, decline in the standard, deterioration of facilities, mass promotion syndrome, teachers truancy and the like before any other thing else, are the sets of thoughts that come to mind when the issue of Nigeria educational system is raised. The problem of poverty in Africa has over the years engaged the attention of the international community, governmental and nongovernmental Agencies, including Nigerians Scholars. Poverty is one of the factors militating against man from carrying out his educational activities perfectly (Aluko, 2003). Because of the various perception and complexities of the term poverty, a universally agreed definition cannot be arrived at. But then, poverty according to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2003) is a way of life characterized by low Calorie intake, inaccessibility of adequate health facilities, low quality education system, low life expectancy, unemployment and under-employment. Lero and Symes (2004) considered poverty as major anti-risk factors relating the concept poverty to Nigeria, it will therefore be considered in broader way which implies that it has been viewed in various perspectives, which include ones national state and home background. At the national level, a nation can be considered poor, when her economic standard is very low and this automatically makes the nation underdeveloped. The economy of a country that does not reach certain stage of development in terms of infrastructure and other development indices.
As regards poverty in the family level, we are referring to the home background. Even before the indigenous education or western type of education, the home has always been the agency through which man learns various aspect of life to enable him live a meaningful life in his environment (Aluko, 2003). The role of the home cannot be over emphasized because the general assumptions that states of poverty in the family or home goes a long way to determine the extent of students educational development vi-avis parental eiciency or productivity in their place of work, and contrary to conventional wisdom, female teachers poor performance is not necessarily a result of inadequate infrastructure, or teachers qualification, but largely an outcome of poverty by teachers on the Teachers’ Service Commission’s payroll observed Oguw (2005). Many teachers and most especially the female teachers might be in school or even in class, but they don’t teach. Absenteeism is another issue as most of the teachers engaged in menial business to augment their little salary in order to meet with the household demands. Education is seen by many as the route to alleviate poverty, there is no doubt that many feel education is the most potent instrument for alleviating and eventually abolishing poverty, but in this case where most of the drivers or implementers of the school curriculum are themselves not spared by this chronic disease called poverty. What then is the hope of our educational system? In view of this, the interest of the researcher is on the effect of poverty on female teacher’s performance in secondary schools with particular reference to Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Evidence shows that in Nigeria, the number of those in poverty has continued to increase every year, in 1999, when Nigeria nascent democracy began, it was estimated that more than 70% of Nigerians lived in poverty. In the recent years, it has been a controversy through in the mind of people that if the poor status of any society or nation, even family can really have an impact on the performance of female teachers. For most Nigerians, poverty is endemic, is real and devastating, for a large percentage of the population, there is no food, housing and health security. Life involves struggle against hunger and a total lack of housing which leads to unprecedented increase in teacher’s absenteeism and consequently dwindling performance. This ugly trend has become a serious problem because it constitutes an obstacle to rapid economic development of a nation as it usually affects both performance of the teachers and productive of the school products (graduates from the system) negatively. The continues decline in the standard of education ranging from mass failure, students involvement in examination-practice, increase in both teachers and students truancy and the sharp drop in moral decadence are concerns for worry.
