CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The home is the primary institution for children, home as perceived by Abdulganiyu (1997), Christe (2009), defined home as a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property.
Haven’t define the concept of home it is therefore important to define family. The family can therefore, be looked at as a social group characterized by common resident, economic, cooperation and production.
When a child is born, the family is the first primary group with which they come into contact. Transmission of social values of right and wrong, what is morally and religiously accepted or condemned by the family, it follows therefore that by the time a child attained five to seven years of age he must have learnt what are his rights, obligations and roles within the society.
However, the background of a students go along way to determine his/her individuality. As the child enters schools, he/she will start manifesting different attitudes and expectations. In addition they may be of the same age group, developed at different rates and so may be able to cope with the intellectual and social task of the school in varying extent.
However, a home can either be stable or broken. A stable home is one in which both parent (mother and father) lives together with their children, while a broken home is the one in which one or both of the parents are not living together with the children. It is the level at which the home operates that determine the academic achievement of a science students in school. Broken homes been it unstable can influence the achievement of a science students academically.
Also, children that have suffered from neglect or lack of love (in a broken homes) are known to be psychologically imbalanced to face the realities of life. When there is disunity in the family, or a difference between a mother or a father, the child is caught in the middle and will be at disadvantage. According to Blackby (1999), Adequate research need to be conducted in this direction to ensure smooth transition of children from early stages to adulthood.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The child’s home and his family offer the best education since his parents serve as teachers. The parents lay the foundation for the desired social, moral, emotional, spiritual and intellectual well being of the child. The training a received from home is of greatest importance in his/her total personality formation and his/her academic achievements as a science student. It can also be observed that the pattern of life in the home (stable or broken), the economic and social status of the family in the community and many other conditions that give the home a distinctive character can influence the achievement of science student in school.
Abdulganiyu (1997), added that research have shown that children differs in various ways as a result of variables of their home background such as socio – economic status, parental attitude to school and child rearing practices. These home background variables are also found to be positively related to children’s academic achievement, more especially science students that need care and love.
Similarly, Giwa (1997), have investigated the factors within the students home background or family that affect their performance s in school, variables such as socio – economic status, family size, birth order, parental attitude, child rearing practices, parental absence or presence have been found to affect social and intellectual learning experiences of children in schools. This is so because children are born with some psychological, emotional and intellectual needs such as need for love and security, the need for new experiences, the need for praise and recognition and the need for responsibility. Many of these needs are not offered to the children of broken homes which will influence their performance in science. The extent to which these needs are met during the formative years of children between birth and the age of six or seven in the extent to which they enter school well equipped or ready to deal with the social and emotional aspects of schooling.
Based on the observation above and in line with the assumption that economic and social future of many children in most localities is being undermined by cultural practices that promotes widespread divorce amongst couples and brought unnecessary hardship to the growing children.
It is pertinent at this juncture to point out in spite of all the needs expressed as to be met by the students most especially science students, this research also has intended to seek for how much science student is affected in academic achievement, either as a result of his home been stable or broken.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In our society, children are sometimes exposed at an early age to all sort of dangers arising from malnutrition, diseases and various temptation of surviving due to absence of one or both of their parents. Student’s life in broken homes is observed to be associated with emotional stress that can impair intellectual development, thereby giving way for such children to grow up without being trained properly.
However, absence of one or both parents deprives young children of the stable love, care, security and total support they have been accustomed to and tend to make children different in the eyes of the peer group. if children are asked where the missing parent is or why they have a new parent to replace the missing parents, they become embarrassed and ashamed. They may also feel guilty and unwanted by the society, such stressful situation leads to psychological, emotional and intellectual imbalance in growing children. These subsequently result to quitting from school or poor academic achievement of science student as science require critical thinking, relax mind and proper family support to be able to perform to expectation in the area. Hence it becomes necessary to investigate factors that causes broken homes with a view to finding solution to the problems for psychological well being of growing children in our society, and these lead us to look at the effect of broken homes on science students education particularly in Sokoto South local government.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions are formulated to guide this study.
1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objectives of this research work include the following.
To find out the causes of home breakage and the solution to it in sokoto south local government area of sokoto state.
To assess the impact or effect of broken homes on science students education.
To find out how absence of one or both parent influence science students academic performances in school.
To seek for solution on how to control widespread divorce among couples.
To suggest ways of minimizing unnecessary divorce
To find out whether there is significant differences in academic performances of students from broken home and those from stable home in science schools.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to carry out research on possible causes of broken home and its consequences on the educational prosperity of students of science in sokoto south local government of sokoto state. This is with a view to suggest ways of minimizing and overcoming the problem.
As known by all educators, the home play very significant role in child personality formation and socialization, broken homes are identified as one of the factor that undermined the socialization process at home, which consequently affect the performance of student. If the concern of education, science education in particular is to look after socialization process of the child as well as his intellectual development, then this research work would be of great importance to parents and educators that absence of one or both of the parent affect children educational carrier be it medicine, engineering, chemistry, physics and the likes, in the field of education and family life to come with solution of ensuring stability in the homes for the betterment of growing children and the society at large.
1.7 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Though, the questions which prompted this study was found to be in existence in different part of the country, most especially in the northern part of the country, it is not possible for this research to cover all such areas. This is because the research/ researchers cannot obtain data from all places concerned due to lack of time and resources (both human and material resources).
As the title of the research reads, the research will be limited to only sokoto south local government area of sokoto state and it should be noted that the work may not represent some areas in the local government and not all people during the course of the research exercise will cooperate, hence the research is bound to experience limitation.
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