Appraisal of Child Labour on the Punctuality and Study Habits Among Selected Primary Schools in Eti-osa, Lagos State
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of Study
This study specifically seeks to:
- Examine the extent to which child labor will affect study habits among selected Primary School pupils.
- Determine if the rate of punctuality have effect on children exposed to child labor among selected Primary School pupils.
- The find out the adverse effect of child labor on classroom participation among selected Primary School pupils.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Child Labour
Who, in the eyes of the law, is a child? Under the Basic Remuneration Act 1961, the age of maturity is eighteen (18) years. The employment of children Act 1938 said that anyone under fifteen (15) years is a child. However, the Child Act 1974 laid down sixteen (16) years as the age of maturity. Children are internationally categorized to be human beings below the age of eighteen (18) years. They are special link between the present and future generations. This fact about children could be one of the major reasons, which motivated the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) at its convention on the 20th of November, 1989 to identify and adopt the children‟s rights. The right were ratified by a world submit on Children‟s Rights by UNICEF in 1990. The right of the child has fifty four (54) articles.
Aina and Zechum (1991) defined a child as a person who is physically, mentally, socially underdeveloped within the age period from birth to eighteen (18) years old. Odusanya (2002) defined a child as someone who is under fourteen (14) years of age that is time of care, protection and learning. During this period, there are many issues that the child cannot deal with: the parents and society are expected to take responsibility for whatever a child does during this period and determine the kind of adult he/she will become. Children are special and they hold the key to the future of any nation. The editorial of punch Tuesday 27th may2003 noted that, the greatness of any nation depends on how it took care of the most vulnerable segment of its population. They should therefore be committed to the building of a nation for their children. There should be more concrete programmes and welfare and safety of vision children, to aid their growth to full physical and intellectual potentials in a technology driven world.
Labour is defined by Hornby and wakefield (1974) as bodily or mental work. Thus, labour in the context of the research is work of any form, for productive ends. The Standard
Dictionary (1978) defined labour as a physical or mental exertion, particularly for some useful or desired end. Schultz (1960) emphasized the importance of foregone earnings in human capital accumulation. Investors (parents, children) weigh the return on additional education investments against the cost; such investments entail the foregone economic contribution of children. Becker (1965) extended the argument to emphasize that non-wage uses of time, were apt to be an equally important influence on the opportunity cost of the child time in school. Rosenzweigh and Evenson (1977) appeared to be the first published study explicitly to analyse child labour in a developing country context.
Child labour has received considerable attention in economics throughout the disciplines history.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to appraise of child labour on the punctuality and study habits among selected primary schools. Selected selected primary schools in eti-osa, Lagos state form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
Table 1 shows that 29 (16.1%) of the students failed, 107 representing 59.4% had ordinary pass while 41(22.7%) and 03(1.8%) had passed at merit and credit levels respectively. This shows that out of the 180 student hawkers, 136(75.5%) of them scored below average. This implies that level of academic performance of student hawkers was low.
Research question 2: How will the rate of punctuality affect children exposed to child labor among selected Primary School pupils?
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on appraisal of child labour on the punctuality and study habits among selected primary schools, selected primary schools in eti-osa, lagos state. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
Conclusion
From the findings of the study “appraisal of child labour on the punctuality and study habits among selected primary schools”. The following conclusions were drawn; the study found that school attendance of pupils exposed to labour was low compared to those who are not. The researcher concluded that significant number of those found to be truancy in schools were pupils exposed to labour. This will have an adverse effect on their academic performance which may lead to school drop out.
Most of the pupils not exposed to labour have advantage over those exposed to labour academically. By implication this shows that greater number of these pupils will be found wanting academically that will lead to low academic achievement, and inability to cope with future academic challenges in schools. Female pupils have a lower school attendance compared to their male counterparts. This implies that female pupils will have higher number of school dropout, academic failure and inability to cope with future academic challenges in schools.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were put forward:
- Parents and community should be mindful of age and sex of their children before exposing them to labour.
- Children exposed to labour activities should be given equal right to attend school regardless of any engagement in labour activity.
- Parents and the school authority should ensure that female pupils are retained in school by providing girl child friendly environment.
- Extra free classes should be introduced to children exposed to labour by the curriculum planners, with special preference to the female pupils exposed to labour.
- The Home Economics curriculum planners through the Ministry of Education should introduce entrepreneur subjects such as catering, tailoring, fashion design at primary school level.
- The Government/Community should develop positive strategies to labour reduction or eradication towards a fruitful fulfillment of children‟s school attendance and academic performance such as: introducing more subsidies such as free meal tickets, reduced school fees or certificates of school attendance.
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