AN EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF FAMILY SIZE ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The study examines the effect of polygamy and large family size on students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State. The descriptive research survey was employed in the assessment of the respondents’ opinions with the aid of a questionnaire. A total of 350 (three hundred and fifty) respondents made up (175 males and 175 females) were selected to represent the entire population of the study. Four (4) hypotheses were tested in this study, with the aid of the independent t-test statistical tool for hypotheses one, three and four, while hypothesis two was tested with the use of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistical instrument. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. At the end of the data analyses, the following results were obtained; that there is a significant effect of polygamy on students’ social adjustment, there is a significant relationship between polygamous/large family size and students’ academic performance, there is no significant difference between the performance of students who live in polygamous/large family size and those in monogamous/small family size, and there is a significant impact of lack of fatherly attention on students’ academic performance in school.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The human family has long been besieged by many problems. The problems in question, existed side by side with the human without threatening it with extinction. History relates with the effects of child abuse and neglect, abject poverty, wife battery, absentee husbands, child trafficking, adolescent problems, economic austerity, famine, insecurity, violence, divorce and separation. According to Annie (2000), the recent problem facing the family structure in the contemporary society, is the problem of polygamy and large family size. Anthropological literature often report that African cultures are greatly polygamous, the term used when one man has more than one wife. Traditionally, it is the woman who chooses a co-wife – someone with who she can cope well, like a younger sister or cousin, and in cases where the husband needs a subsequent wife, the preceding wives get to pick their co-wife or wives (Whyte, 1990).
According to Ekiran (2003), the polygamous family is any type of plural marriage. This could be polygamy, in which a man is married to two or more women at the same time. Care of the major characteristics of polygamous family is large family size. For instance, in a polygamous family, a man has many wives and many children. In most cases, the husband of the house may not be wealthy to take care of all the members of the family. In this case, the educational career of the children suffers a lot of set backs (Uzomah, 2006). According to Nkemdirim (2005), most children who come from the polygamous homes hardly perform well in their academic work. He opined that children from the monogamous homes perform better than their counterparts who come from the polygamous families.
Adeogun (2000) is of the opinion that children do well in school when they are supported by their parents, and on the other hand, do not perform well if their parents fail to support their educational career. In a polygamous family where the size of the family is quite large, the man who is the bread-winner, may not be able to pay the school fees of the children, purchase their educational materials such as books, school uniforms, pocket money and other items necessary for the children’s success in school. When a student lacks the opportunity of being provided for and supported to succeed in his or her education, the child may not have high educational achievement (Ayo, 2002). Parents who have many children as a result of polygamy, oftentimes, fail to cater for all the children by giving them equal and unbiased treatment. According to Uzodike (2000), parents who are polygamists, are noted for giving unequal treatment to their children/wards. In many polygamous homes, parents are selective in the education of their children/wards. For instance, they do not allow all children to go to school, due to the fact that they (parents), do not have the to sponsor all their children’s education. Rather, they send some of their children to school, while some of them are forced to learn one trade or the other because, the meagre resources of the family will not be able to support all the children through school.
In most cases, Adekoya (1990) stated that parents who belong to the polygamous homes are not educated and so, do not know the importance of education to the children. For the fact that they are not educated, coupled with their positions as poor individuals, find it difficult to train their children to school. Some of them learnt one trade or the other, prefer their children to toe their lines of trades or businesses, instead of wasting time going through the rigours of education and learning. In a study carried out by Onyeji (2001) most polygamous homes do not support the education of their children, because the children are too many to be educated.
