FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

P.M.B 1027 PANKSHIN, PLATEAU STATE,

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING/ PHE

COURSE CODE: EDU 303A

COURSE TITLE: RESEARCH METHOD

TOPIC: THE INFLUENCE OF POVERTY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF

SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN: A CASE STUDY OF BASSA LGA

BY

NANNA NANBUT
FCEP/2019/GUC/0254

SUBMITTED TO

MR. CHRISTMAS DALONG

NOVEMBER, 2021

PROJECT PROPOSAL

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 TOPIC: THE INFLUENCE OF POVERTY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF
SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN: A CASE STUDY OF BASSA LGA

1.1 Background of the study

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly which constitutes representatives from
almost every country in the world adopted the United Nation’s Millennium Declaration in
September 2000. The declaration highlighted various goals known as the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG). The representatives committed their Nations to a united world
partnership in reducing extreme poverty and the declaration bounded within a set time frame that
should be reached in 2015. The declaration covers the elimination or eradication of poverty as
against 2010. Unfortunately, that goal was not achieved by 2015. In other word, the Millennium
Development Goals did not meet all the goals within the time frame particularly that of poverty
reduction strategies. The Assembly further improved the goals (from Millennium Development
Goals to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)), fortunately, one of the goals is the closure of
extreme poverty by 2030. In a stress to strongly eradicate poverty, the SDG included a goal
regarding Education. The goal targets the promotion of quality Education for Children world
over.
The Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
achieved some substance and improvement in some areas in the world, but poverty eradication
and poor Education quality still bear some fruits in Africa. (A report from Borgen Project.Org,
November 9, 2015). Gallup World (2013) highlighted that, the poorest countries with the highest
proportion of residents living in extreme poverty were all in Sub-Sahara Africa. It went on to
stress that; extreme poverty is living on $1.25 or less a day. (Gallop World, 2013)
As indicated the position and State of Africa, Nigeria is one of poorest countries in the
world. In a report of World Bank for education in Sierra Leone, 2007, the executive summary,
clearly stated that, the recent history of the nation is, unfortunately characterized by the civil war
that happened between 1991 and 2002, in which 50 thousand citizens lost their lives, and in
which the country lost most of its social, economic, and physical infrastructure. The war
destroyed the nation and leaving citizens in poor environment many of them homeless, in
traumatic condition and the educational system was paralyzed all over the country. Schools were
burnt and teachers killed in some areas.

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 In addition to the severe poverty in Nigeria, was the outbreak of Ebola disease in 2014
that slowed down economic development process. Nigeria pronounced a state of emergency for
the Ebola outbreak in July 2014. There was no licensed Ebola Vaccines or treatment, proven to
neutralize that Virus, but early care with rehydration and symptomatic treatments improves the
probability of survival (World health Organization, 2016).
In addition, the high tendency of poverty in Nigeria have social indicators such as infant
and mortality, illiteracy rates, poor access to education, health care and safe drinking water – all
these reflect the low level of human development. Besides, the maternal mortality and fertility
rates are very high among women and infant -one of the worst in the world. The contra captive
occurrence frequency and the age at girls’ first delivery remain low. Males’ attendance of school
is higher than females for both underprivileged and privileged households. There is also
indication of extreme poverty to women, particular those in the rural areas.
According to (SL-PRSP March 2005), Poverty in Nigeria has many causes that are
closely interrelated. As investigated the extensiveness and harshness of poverty in the country
came with a combination of result that includes wrong domestic policies, opposing external
developments and other natural factors. The most often mentioned causes of Poverty during the
Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPAs), Focus Group Discussions in Nigeria includes: Bad
governance- especially corruption, the 11 years civil war, Unemployment (or the lack of
Economic Opportunities) Inadequate Social Service, the debt burden, and Vulnerability to risks
and shocks as unstable prices, heavy reliance on donor aid, illness and seasonal factors that affect
livelihoods. (SL-PRSP page 42)

Statement of the Problem

Poverty has diverse effect on the academic performance of school going children
(Yvonne Beaumont Walters, Kola Soyibo, 1998). Anders (2011) defined Poverty as ‚the
strongest indicator of a child going to prison‛. Poverty can have an impact on student
performance. The parents of poor children may not be able to help their kids do schoolwork.
Besides, there are also issues like too much stress, comportment problem, health concerns, and
delays in cognitive development that can result from such a background. Poverty affects
education, the economy and future of citizens (Sean Slade, 2016).

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 Poverty reduction entails ensuring access to quality education (Mihai, 2014). As
indicated by Sayed (2008), the link between poverty and education is complex, but the lack of
learning is perhaps one of the most powerful determinants of poverty. However, the millions of
children without access to education are not only poor, but don’t have access because of the
multidimensional nature of poverty (Maile, 2008)
There is lack of adequate information; contemporary researchers are urging us to research
on the influence of poverty on the academic performance of school going children. Ebele U. F.
and Olofu P. A., (2017) mentioned in their introduction that, the way a student takes his or her
studies, greatly determines his/her level of academic achievements. The level of preparation and
learning strategies developed and employed consciously by students, go a long way to influence
their level of academic performance. This gives us the impression that the study habit is a factor
that influences student academic achievement, which also reflects on the academic performance.
Parent with low income finds it difficult to meet the demands of their families (Blair and
Raver, 2012). Suffering and pressure affects brain development, academic success, and social
capability (Evans, Kim, Ting, Tesher, and Shannis, 2007)

The Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of poverty on the academic performance
of school going children in Junior Secondary school level.

Research Questions

1. What are the facilities available in school for academic performance?

2. What are the facilities available at home for academic performance?
3. What are the environmental conditions that influence academic performance of students?
4. What are the measures taken to improve academic performance?

Aim and Objectives

Aim
The aim of this study is to improve the quality of Education of school going children in Bassa
LGA

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Objectives
The study is intended to achieve the following objectives:
1. Assessing the facilities available in school for academic performance of school going
children.
2. Examine the facilities available at home for academic performance of school going
children.
3. Assessing the environmental conditions that influence academic performance of school
going children
4. Determine the measures taken to improve academic performance of school going
children.
Significance of the Study
The study will benefit the parents, the teachers and future researchers.
The parents. The parents will have the proper knowledge with regards to the effect of their
engagement and encourage them to participate more in their academic.
The teachers. The teachers will be aware of the important effect of poorverty involvement on
their student’s academic performance.
To future researchers. The study can be a reference and guide in making the same related
studies.
Scope and limitations of the study
The study will focus on the effect of parental involvement on the influence of poverty on
academic performance of school going children in Bassa LGA

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

METHODS AND PROCEDURE

RESEARCH DESIGN
The design adopted for this research work is the survey design.

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POPULATION AND SAMPLE
population of the study consist of 10 secondary schools within Kanke Local
Government Area. 10 students will be select in each school through the use of simple
random sampling as making the total of 100 students as sample size.
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
Stratified random sampling technique will be adopt in selecting the students for
the study. This technique ensures that the students from the district were fully involved in
the work.
INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION
The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire.
DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENT
The instrument will be into two sections - A and B. The section A of the
questionnaire seeks personal details of the respondents, And the respondents are required
to tick [√] as they deem fit.
Section B is the questionnaire items, the questionnaire demand respondents to
indicate their opinions on a five (5) scale method of strongly agree (SA = 5point), agree
(A = 4point), neutral (N=3point) disagree (D = 2point), and strongly disagree (SD =
1point). The respondents were to tick [√] against each section as deemed fit using the
scale which was provided.

PROCEDURE FOR INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT

The researcher identifying the problem, observes the prevailing situation within
the area of study in line with the topic of discussion. It is through the observation that the
research will develop questions and to be correct by research experts and for approval by
the supervisor after due scrutiny.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INSTRUMENT
VALIDITY

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 In order to ascertain the validity of the research instrument, the instrument will be
validated by the supervisor and two experts in the College to check on content validity.
RELIABILITY
To establish the reliability of the instrument, two experts in the College will be
given the instrument for rating in respect of the consistency with the research objectives.
Items in which at least two experts agreed upon will be regarded as suitable.
PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION
The researcher will seek the permission of schools heads of the selected schools
following the consent from the school head teachers, the researcher will visit the schools
and administer the questionnaires. the research will adopt face to face method to
distribution of the instrument and this will allow the respondents to fill the questionnaire
on the spot and give it back to the researcher.
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
The questionnaire instrument will be structure using five Likert point response
scale
Decision Rule: A mean score of less than 3.0 is considered rejected, while a mean score
of 3.0 and above is considered accepted.
Meanwhile, chi-square will be used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of
significance.

CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Presentation of Result
4.2 Discussions Of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Summary of the study
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
5.4 Educational Implication

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5.5 Limitations Of The Study
5.6 Suggestions For Further Study
References

Reference

Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development.

Martens, P., Chateau, D., Burland, E., Finlayson, G., Smith, M., & Taylor, C. et al. (2014). The
Effect of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status on Education and Health Outcomes for
Children Living in Social Housing. American Journal Of Public Health, 104(11), 2103-
2113. https://dx.doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302133

Neville, H., Stevens, C., Pakulak, E., Bell, T., Fanning, J., Klein, S., & Isbell, E. (2013). Family-
based training program improves brain function, cognition, and behavior in lower
socioeconomic status preschoolers. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of
Sciences, 110(29), 12138-12143. https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304437110

Tomul, E., & Polat, G. (2013). The Effects of Socioeconomic Characteristics of Students on
Their Academic Achievement in Higher Education. American Journal Of Educational
Research, 1(10), 449-455. https://dx.doi.org/10.12691/education-1-10-7