Otodo Ifeanyichukwu

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the role of education in the rehabilitation and reformation of inmates of Jos prison. The rehabilitation of prisoners through formal education is necessary. The study adopted the descriptive research design. Therefore, a 23-item questionnaire was developed and administered to 250 respondents comprising of 150 inmates and 100 staff of Jos Prison who were chosen through stratified random sampling. The result showed that the respondents agreed that education for prisoners is very important in the rehabilitation and reformation of inmates. Also, some challenges militating against the smooth operation of formal education in Jos prison were highlighted. Based on the finding, some useful recommendations were made on how to better the education of inmates for effective rehabilitation and reformation.

Key words: Rehabilitation, reintegration, education, prison, prisoner.

1.0 Introduction

A prison can be sociologically defined as a confinement where socially and legally interned people who have wronged the society are kept for reformation, rehabilitation and possible reintegration into the society where they would contribute meaningfully to the development of the society. Ideally and as obtained in other developed climes, the prison is the last place for the transfiguration of those who the society dim unfit to cohabit with it owing to the fact that their stay in the society is inimical to the continued co-existence of the members of the society. Prisons are very important to the survival and continued existence of every society. Infact, the importance of prisons cannot be over-emphasised.

Prisons are designed to keep custody of the legally interned, and by doing so, it helps to keep the society safe from misdemeanants and lawbreakers who disturbs the peace of the society. Many are oblivious of this fact. When criminals and other dangerous elements are locked up in the prison, the society is insulated from their nefarious activities, thereby making the society safe for habitation and cohabitation. Hence, the prison is a vital part of the security set up of every society. Imagine what the society would look like if the content of the prisons in Nigeria are poured out.

According to Gumi (2014), people are sent to prison in order to protect the society from harm. Investing in the physical structures of prisons such as in buildings, protective bars, guards and guns alone may help to reduce crime in the short-term; ultimately it does nothing to make society safer. This is because almost everyone in prison will eventually return to society at the end of their term. If they remain idle during their time in prison, they are likely to become bitter and resentful (Gumi, 2014). If however prisoners are given meaningful things to do and are equipped with the skills and self-belief they need to support themselves upon release, society becomes safer because the rate of re-offending would decrease (African Prison Project, 2014).

 Reformation of Prison Inmates can only be achieved through education and skill acquisition training. Formal education becomes a panacea for effecting positive changes in the prison inmates before they are released. Formal education in prison aims at providing the awareness that will enable young as well as mature adults to improve or supplement their knowledge and skills in general subjects. The education of prisoners enhances their abilities to improve their future job and educational possibilities and potentials (Ewulum, Omeriyang and Mbara, 2015).

Education is thus one key aspect of the rehabilitative role in which prisoners can engage while in prison. It is not just a means of keeping the prisoner occupied, but has the capacity to form a stepping stone towards prisoner’s inclusion and reintegration into society. By providing positive learning environments, prisons can support the inmates to make good use of their sentence; to address gaps in their learning skills; to improve their employability; and to change their personal attitudes and perceptions. This in a long run helps them to understand the reasons for and consequences of their actions. All of these factors can reduce their chances of re-offending (Hawley, 2013).

Moreover, access to education is a fundamental human right and prisoners should not be denied the chance to exercise this right (Hawley, 2013). It can therefore be argued that imprisonment, even if it is viewed as justified punishment, should not bring with it the additional deprivation of civil rights, which include education (UNESCO, 1995).

Ogundipe (2008) posits that the Nigerian Prison Service has established practical programmes for reformation and rehabilitation of prison inmates. These programmes include: Vocational skills development Programme (SVDP) which aims at empowering the prisoners who have no formal education background with the practical skills in handworks like carpentry, metal-work, shoe-making, tailoring and others. This would help them to be self-reliant when they are released from prison. The second programme is the Adult Remedial Education Programme (AREP) which is designed to help prisoners who were pursuing one academic programme or the other before imprisonment. These programmes enable prison inmates to learn skills in such vocation as tailoring, plumbing, carpentry, woodwork, barbing, shoe making, and a host of others; and also to be grounded academically to become professionals like Doctors, Lawyers and graduates after discharge. Ogundipe (2008) also stated that through remedial programmes in the various Nigeria prisons, 1,306 candidates sat for the WAEC and GCE examinations as well as NECO in 2006 while in 2007, 1,198 candidates took the same examinations. For this success, the West African Examination Council made Ikoyi Prisons, Lagos one of its examinations centres.

Globally, education has had a consistent presence in correctional facilities over the past 200 years, though the form it has taken and the rationale behind its provision have changed over time. In 1798, education was introduced in the Americas first correctional facility—the Walnut Street Jail—in the context of religious instruction intended to help individuals repent for their crimes and develop spiritually and morally. The late 1800s marked the rise of the reformatory era, and educational offerings expanded beyond religious instruction to emphasize literacy and communication skills, as well as the inclusion of secular courses such as astronomy, geography, and history. Education was further entrenched within correctional institutions with the introduction of indeterminate sentences, which required evidence of self-improvement as a condition of release. Through the 1970s, often considered the “golden age” for rehabilitative programs, educational instruction proliferated, eventually including high school courses and general equivalency diploma (GED) preparation, vocational training in specific trades, life skills programs, academic higher education program, and study release (Gumi, 2014).

Prisoners can be indifferent to education in prison. Research from the United States of America, Ireland and the United Kingdom shows that prisoners are more likely to have literacy difficulties than the general population (Batchelder and Pippert, 2002; Cropsey, Wexler, Melnick, Taxman and Young, 2007; Hurry, Brazier, Snapes, and Wilson, 2005) and tend to have lower than average attainment and poor experiences of compulsory education (Morgan and Kett, 2003; Muth, 2006; Winn and Behizadeh, 2011). In prisons, particularly in the United Kingdom, the curriculum is often restricted so that prisoners are expected to engage in education that is focused on improving narrow literacy skills rather than broader, and potentially more attractive, educational areas (Hurry, Brazier and Wilson, 2009).

Many prisoners, and adults who have similar unhappy experiences of compulsory education, tend to have negative attitudes to learning and can be very resistant to education that is like school (Barton, Ivanic, Appleby, Hodge and Tusting, 2007; Belzer, 2004; Kilgore, 2001; Maclachlan, Hall, Tett, Crowther and Edwards, 2008). This is especially true of provision focused only on narrow literacy skills such as spelling and thus such courses tend to promote little learning and a great deal of resentment amongst prisoners. On the other hand, Hurry, Brazier and Wilson (2009) found in their study of English prisons that prisoners became engaged and participated in more effective learning when the programme was more contextualized and active. Research from across the UK also shows that creating an environment where learning operates from an individual’s ‘strengths’, rather than their ‘deficits’ is the most effective (Crowther, Maclachlan and Tett, 2010; Entwistle and Smith, 2002). This involves building on and extending the knowledge and skills that individual’s already have, an approach that has been found to be very uncommon in prisons in studies in the US and the UK (Batchelder and Pippert, 2002; Kilgore, 2001).

This research, therefore, seeks to assess the role of education in inmates’ reformation and rehabilitation in Jos Maximum prison; and to determine the extent to which prison inmates have been exposed to formal education with a view to improving their rehabilitation and reformation. The research also exposed the challenges faced by the prison adult school in Jos prison.

2.0 Methodology

The study employed the use of a descriptive research design. Descriptive research design was chosen because it enables the researcher to generalize the findings to other prisons across the country.  The population of the study is made up of all the prisons staff and inmates in Jos prison. Jos prison as at 1^st July, 2015 has 243 staff and 721 inmates. Therefore, the total population for the study was 964. The sample used for this study consisted of 250 respondents: 150 inmates and 100 prisons staff who were selected through the purposive sampling method. The sample is made up of 204 males and 43 females. The age of the respondents ranged from 18-59 years, with a mean age of 34.5 years. Eighty-seven (87) of the inmates were Muslims, while one hundred and sixty three (163) inmates are Christians.  Only convicted inmates serving short and long term sentences were used for the study. Those awaiting trails were left out of the study because they are not qualified for rehabilitation and reformation programmes.

The research made use of a self structured questionnaire which was developed by the researchers. The questionnaire was subjected for validity by two experts in criminology from the University of Uyo; and other two senior prison officers working in the Plateau state headquarters of the Nigerian Prisons Service. Comments and recommendations of the experts were incorporated in the final construction of the instrument which ended up with 23 items. The instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.76 using the test-retest reliability method and was considered high enough. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and percentages. While simple percentages was used to analyze research question one, mean score was used in Research question two. Decision rule for Research question two was based on 4-points numerical values assigned to the responses: Strongly Agree (SA) = 4-points, Agree (A) = 3 points, Disagree (D) = 2 points and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1 point. Items which had mean rating of 2.50 and above were agreed on. Conversely, items which had less than 2.5 were considered to be disagreed on.

3.0 Results and findings

The results of the study were presented according to the research questions. Out of the 250 copies of the questionnaire distributed and returned, 3 were badly filled and discarded while the remaining 247 copies were presented and analyzed in tables using descriptive statistics and percentages.

3.3 Discussion of Results

Result of research question one show that education is very important in the rehabilitation and reformation of inmates’ of Jos prison. This is in tandem with Gumi (2014) who posits that formal education is cardinal to the rehabilitation of prison inmates. The result also agrees with Omoni and Ijeh (2009) that the issue of vocational and formal education cannot be overemphasized in the rehabilitation process of prisoners. The aim of imprisonment is not only for punishment, but to prevent offending and reoffending. In the society today, the leading cause of crime and criminal behaviours is lack of empowerment. Education in prison can reduce recidivism as inmates will be empowered with the academic knowledge that can make them stay off crime and lead law-abiding lives. Table 2 shows that 72.1 percent of the respondents strongly agreed that education in prison play a cardinal role in the rehabilitation and reformation of inmates. Also, 17.8 percent of respondents agree with the assertion. This shows that, about 89.9 percent of the respondents supports that education is paramount in the rehabilitation and reformation of inmates.

Table three showed that the respondents agreed that all the challenges listed therein militate against the smooth running of the prison adult school in Jos prison. These problems ranging from lack of enough teachers to time constraints are the major challenges bugging down education in the prison. This is in agreement with Ewelum, Omeriyang and Mbara (2015) who found out that the major challenges militating against the reformation of prison inmates in Anambra state include: lack of professional educators, lack of staff training, poor funding, among others. Nigeria prisons according to The Nation (2010) are “living hells.” Most prisons are bedeviled by poor facilities like classrooms, stationery and books, lack of qualified educators to teach in the prison schools, among others. This scene is reflected in all prisons structures in the country. This has led to the non-performance of the schools in our prisons. From table three, it is obvious that some of the maladies affecting the administration of formal education in Jos prison include; lack of enough teachers, frequent transfer of prisoners and teaching staff, lack of stationery and books, and poor funding. Other challenges as agreed by the respondents are lack of external assessment by examination bodies like WAEC/NECO/JAMB, poor library and time constraints.

 

4.0 Conclusion

It is obvious from the result of this study that the prison is a very important agent of rehabilitation and reformation of the social misfits. It is also a component of the criminal justice system charged with the responsibility of confirming, reforming and rehabilitating prison inmates so that they would become better citizens when released from the prison. This study reveals that education in prison is very cardinal in the rehabilitation of inmates. However, it was discovered that several challenges ranging from lack of enough teachers to time constraints hinder the smooth running of the prison adult school in Jos prison. These maladies have led to the non-performance of the school and explain why the rate of recidivism in Nigeria is at increase.  For this reason, recommendations were proffered on how to resuscitate education as a tool of rehabilitation in Nigerian prison thereby improving the service delivery of our prisons system.

5.0 Recommendation

After a careful analysis of the role of education in the rehabilitation and reformation of prison inmates, this study came up with the following recommendations:

1. The federal government of Nigeria should float a Prison Development Trust Fund (PDTF) to fund the prisons in the area of vocational and formal education. In other words, the education of prison inmates should receive closer government attention financially and otherwise.
2. The Nigerian Prisons Service should create public awareness programmes through the mass media on the role of prison and its rehabilitative roles. This in the long run will improve the image of our prisons and also provide a platform for more sensitization on prison education.
3. The Nigerian Prisons Service should collaborate with the various state ministries of education in order to benefit from the various plans by these ministries.
4. National and regional examination bodies like the WAEC, NECO, JAMB and NABTEB should be lobbied to establish examination centres in our prisons.
5. The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) should be made to open a centre in at least one prison in all the geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
6. The Nigerian Prisons Service should recruit more educators and teachers. Also, schools should be floated in prisons where such does not exist.

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MKPUGHE CHRISTIANA IFEYINWA (DR)

Abstract

 This study focused on the effect of socio-economic status of parents on the academic performance of students in Technical Colleges in Delta State. Two research hypotheses were formulated. There is no significant difference between Academic Performance of Students from poor background compared to those from wealthy homes, there no significant correlation between students from intact homes and that of broken homes. Recommendations were made based on the findings.

 

Keywords: Profession/Vocation, Educational level, Socio-Economic Status and family type.

INTRODUCTION

The role parents in the upbringing of the child cannot be overemphasized and as such it’s socioeconomic status is of vital importance. Students have shown that parental influence manifests itself in parental values and experience, education, vocation/profession of parents, religion and socio-economic background of parents. Parental socio-economic status and intelligence have either facilitating or inhibitory effect on the child depending on the traits inherited and the environment in which he is brought up. The self and work roles begin early in life and the home in conjunction with it’s related social system have great influence on them. The parents or family provides the initial social encounter through socialization process, also provides the 3models with which the child can identify, usually a child may consciously or unconsciously, learn from the parents by imitation. Parental set standard may greatly affect the life’s of adolescents and so motivate them to be achievement oriented. Thus a family where some particular careers are of great priority tend to orient it’s children in achieving that goal.

Therefore, the socio-economic status of a parent goes a long way to mould a child’s personality both morally, academically, economically, socially, spiritually or otherwise. Jacquelynm and Eccles and Pamela Daviskean (2005)

Statement of the Problem

The socio-economic status of parents can motivate or hamper the child’s academic performance in schools. For students to have excellent performance in schools, they should be reared in a home free quarreling and rancor, should have enough parental security and financial security, readiness to learn to the part of the student a good learning environment and learning materials. A lot of problems are faced by students in Technical Colleges in Delta State.

The Concept of Socio-economic status

This study focused on the effect of socio economic status of parents on students in Technical. Colleges in Delta State. The concept of socio economic status based on socio-economic factors represnts one of the major systems of stratification. Social stratification arises out of the recognition in all societies people are ranked or evaluated at a number of levels of social class is common to most societies ancient or modern. Infact almost every community has within it, groups which think of themselves being somewhat alike.

The member of these groups may exhibit similarities in choice of food, housing, dressing, language, occupation, income values, social behaviour and even colour or race. Farooq (2011) emphasized that the social class of parent is a dominant factor in the academic performance. The academic abilities and the socio-economic background of youth impose considerable constraints upon the performance of students and on the type of vocation they can make. He able boy from a middle class family has a wider range of possibilities open to him than a boy from a poor socio-economic class. Okoh, (1980) in his work say that students have shown that children from low income homes come to school with a two-fold handicap.

Their innate intelligence is under developed in certain aspects that are important for success in present day educational systems and their personality is structured that they are not likely to do well in school. The child from the low social class according these studies has not his spare time carefully organized for. He has a very notion and is incapable of planning and pursuing long term projects. To such a child, luck, rather than vigorously planned work appears to be reason for success.

According to Rothesetein (2004) the social class of parents are fundamental to the individual’s educational and vocational decisions. He went further to explain that social membership influence and is influenced by occupational membership. Other factors identified  which exert considerable influence on the individual include sex, family age, race, culture school and economy. Azhar Nadeem, Naz Perveen & Sameen (2015) testifies to the fact that much of the child’s educational development starts at home, before he actually starts the formal education, to him the middle class homes are always able to provide the necessary prerequisites success. For example, they can provide good environment, motivation, the necessary financial help and also hi1ighted some facts on the influence of socio economic status of either the parents, home or environment on the occupational preference of youths. They postulated that a child’s particular socio-economic inheritance may a direct and important effect on the occupation open or life attractive to him. The economic an occupational level of the home affects performance of the students, Farooq (2011).

The study was organized under the following headings

1. Occupation of parents
2. Parental background
3. Type of family
4. Wealth of the family
5. Broken family

Occupation of Parents

This involves the type of work or job done by the parents of these student this go a long way to affect the performance of those students. There are parents whose work do not give time for their children as such the students are affected negatively Duke, (2000), Sewell, William and Robert, Hauser (1975). Most time you discover that most students or children are influenced by the occupation of their parents or stimulated by what they find their parents doing, parental or family set-standard may greatly affect performance of their children either positive or negatively even in the occupational choice of their children later in their lives and so motivate them to be achievement oriented. Thus a family where some particular careers are of great priority, tend to orient it’s children towards achieving that goal. In some families because the family head is a lawyers the children will want be lawyer or even doctors, nurse or teachers or accountants because their parents are one or have set such standard for them. Studies have shown that a child’ particular socio-economic inheritance may have a direct and important effect on the career open or attractive to him than does his physical inheritance. The economic and occupational level of home affects the vocational goals of the youth by influencing their aspirations to be similar to those held by their parents and by Halsey, Health and Ridge (1980) discouraging aspirations to levels much above or below the parental occupational. The child’s biological endowments in terms of personality traits are transmitted to him in form of genetic inheritance. If both parents possess high intellectual capabilities and transmit the traits for indigence to the child, that, child is very likely to be highly intelligent and benefit from education which will likely enhance his opportunity for occupations on the hand, a child of very low intellectual parents who inherited this trait may turn out to be an imbecile who may later find it difficult to be properly educated and be gainfully employed. So, the occupation of parents has a vital role to play in the lives students in Technical Colleges. Halsay, health and Ridge (1980).

Parental background

Parental socio-economic status and intelligence have either facilitating or inhibitory effect on the child depending on the traits inherited and environment in which he is brought up. The self and work roles begin early in the life and home in conjunction with its related socio system have great influence on the them. The family comprising of parents, siblings, relatives, friends and neighbours, providing the initial social encounter through socialization process, also provides the models with which the child can identify. Usually the child may consciously or unconsciously learn from the parents by role playing or imitation. Parental background with talk about whether parents of children is high socio-economic status, middle or low socio-economic status as a long way to play in the performance of students in technical Colleges. Azhar, Nadeem, Naz, Perveen and Sameen (2015).

A family could be classified as either of high or low socio-economic status. The question might be asked how do we dichromize between high and low socio-economic family background Owalabi (1988) criteria for classifying Nigerian parents could be adopted, here. For him parents who are professional senior civil servants, graduates and non-graduates teachers, clerks, traders and businessmen and women of appreciable income parent who have post primary and higher education are referred to as being of high socio-economic status while parent who are craftsman artisans and farmer and parents who have no schooling or have elementary education are referred to as being of low socio-economic status. Differential access to education theory is apparently true in Nigeria, thus, children of low socioeconomic families do not have as much access to education as children of high socio-economic family background are found mostly in good quality post primary institutions such as the Federal Government Controlled Colleges which are adequately provided with qualified teachers and materials to Ramey and Ramey (1994) the disadvantage of brilliant children from poor homes. One of the implications of such differential access to education could be that children from high socio-economic families especially in careers of greater social demands and status.

Also it was discovered that some students who failed the West African School Certificate (WASC) Examinations who would have preferred to go back to their schools or other schools to repeat the year were prevented from doing so because of the inability of their parents to meet up-financially the cost of their going back to school. He further revealed that consequently, such students went into the teacher training colleges which were free thereby choosing teaching as career circumstantially while others went into other unskilled jobs. Finally parental family background plays important or affects the child performance the school. Ramey and Ramey (1994).

Types of Family

Under types of family we are looking at whether, the children or child is born into a polygamous home, monogamous family and so on. The type of family which the students are born into can affect them either positively or negatively. A child born by polygamous parents will find it very difficult to meet up with the financial demands of his school. Since there are a lot of children and wives to take care and as such the financial responsibility on the family will be very high such child will be affected negatively except the family is buoyant. Femi Ogushola and Adewale (2014).

Also even in a monogamous homes if the number of children in the family is large there will be great financial responsibility on the parents. The child may be affected negatively but if the numbers of children are reduced the parents will able to meet their needs easily considering the family income. Also in families where the breadwinner of the house is late (either the men or women). There will high financial responsibility especially on our women if it was the man who died. So, the children will be affected negatively and it will hinder their academic performance in the school, Anderso and Sullivan (1998).

The wealth of family

The wealth of the family is of paramount importance, if the family is wealthy, children’s needs whether academic or otherwise will be met easily without much stress but where the family poor, the academic need of the children will not be met easily, this goes a long way to affect the child performance negatively. There are situations where the parents of students may not have money to pay their children’s school fees and children are sent of out of school for non-payment of school fee and other necessary fees, in such cases, the child or students may not be allowed take their examination. The wealth of the family talks about the family income whether it is high or low. Ramsey and Ramsey (1994), Memon, Joubish and Khurram (2015)

 

Broken Homes

A child from broken home is never happy or a child from a home where there quarreling and fighting is never happy because of the environment that he or she is coming from. Also a child whose mother left the house because the frequent fighting and quarrellings in home or immoral behaviours of their father, will never be happy in school and will not concentrate in his studies, his mind will easily go back to the occurrence of home or a child that is under care of his mother and not being accepted by his stepfather because he is not that man’s child will never be happy in the class and invariably, will not do well in his studies.

Furthermore, a child living with the father, where the mother is no longer in home may receive ill-treatment from the father’s wife or wives especially if is the wicked and bad type. Such child will never be happy in class and if a child not happy, there is every tendency that child or student’s performance will be affected negatively except for a determined child who Wants to excel through work undermining the situation at home.

Research Questions

1. Is there any significant difference between the academic performance of students from poor background and those from wealthy home?
2. Is there any correlation between the academic performance of students from broken homes and those from intact homes?

Purpose of the Study

1. The main purpose of the study is to determine effect of socio-economic status of students in Technical Colleges.
2. To determine the difference between the academic performance of students poor background and those from wealthy homes.
3. To determine the relationship between the academic performance of student from broken homes and from those of intact homes.

Significance of the Study

There has been a general motion that increase, monetary rewards and academic ability are the major influences on the performance of students. The socio economic status of parents is hardly linked with these factors. The finding of this study will be beneficial to government, parents teachers and the society at large. It will serve as a guide to administrators and education planners when making decisions it will affect students.

It will serve as an eye opener on the effects social economics status of parent on their children and how the negative effects can be corrected. This study will help educational or guidance counselors to identify students whose parents are from the lower social class and profit solution to their problems. It will also help students in career choices and the available resources at their disposal.

Definition of important Terms

1. Profession / Vocation: This is defined as definable work activity that occurs in many different setting.
2. Education Level: The educational height of an individual whether is an individual is highly educated or not.
3. Socio-economic status: This refers to ones social and economic standing within a social stratification or classes and are explained a follows:
4. a) An upper class: These are wealthy individuals who frequently did not and constitute about 25% of the population.
5. b) An upper middle class: These are mostly skilled workers whose sons were generally apprenticed to same or some other skilled trade frequently they become clerks but seldomly merely labourers.
6. c) Low middle class: These are unskilled workers and domestic workers or servants. In this class children usually augment the family income by manual work at an early age.
7. d) Lower Class: These are unskilled workers who are predominantly poor. Their standard of living is very low and their children worked from an early age and receive about ¼ of the pay of an unskilled workers.

Research Methodology

This is the description of the methods used in carrying out the study, which include, the following headings.

1. Design of study
2. Population of study
3. Sample of selection
4. Sample area
5. Instrumentation
6. Administration of question

Design of Study

This design of study employed is the survey method, survey study is a descriptive research method. It is aimed at discovering relative, incidence, distribution and inter-relationship of educational, sociological, physiological, political and economical variables. The researcher examined the opinion attitudes or feelings of individual about a particular problem.

Population of study

The population of this study comprises is all the Technical Colleges in the State (Delta), Sample of the study

The study was carried out in randomly selected Technical Colleges in the State. The randomly selected schools induce specific the no before history

1. Issele-Uku Technical College, Issele-Uku
2. Agbor Technical College, Agbor
3. Sapele Technical College, Sapele
4. Delta Career Warn

Instrumentation

The instrument used for this study was questionnaire. It consists of two sets. That of teachers and the students. The teacher questionnaires consist of twenty items is divided into section A & B section A consists of personal data of the respondents while section B deals with the questions based on the hypothesis. The teacher questionnaire consists of two sets. That of teachers and students. The teacher questionnaire consist of twenty. It is divided into section A & B, section A consists of personal data of the respondents while section B deals with the questions just as in the teacher questionnaire.

Administration of Instrument

The entire questionnaire was administered by the researcher through a visit to the sampled schools. This enable the researchers to get responses from teacher and students. In each school were given questionnaires were collected by the researcher. About two hundred questionnaires were distributed.

Method of Data collection or Analysis

The data collected were tabulated and analysed using the chi-square test of contingency. It’s formula is given as

x² =   ∑(O -E)²

  E

Where X²               =                              Chi-square

∑                             =                              Summation sign

O                             =                             Observed data

E                             =                              Expected data

This test has a level of significance of 0.05 with degree of freedom as one (1) and two (2) where necessary.

Validation of Instrument

The questionnaire is the outcome of the intensive process of validation. The questionnaire is carefully designed to meet the targeted goal, the questionnaire was submitted to two lectures and it was properly scrutinized and deleted substandard questions (if any). Thus; this helped in selecting the needed basic objectives of study. The items were pruned appropriately and as such the questionnaire was described as valid in content and context.

Data Analysis, Presentation of Result

It deals with analysis of data in respect of the questionnaires already administered on the proposed sample. The analysis, presentation of result and discussion was pointed towards verifying the hypothesis earlier formulated.

Data Analysis

Testing of the hypothesis

Hypothesis One: Ho₁ states that there is no significant difference between academic performance of students from poor background compared to those from wealthy homes. To test the above hypothesis the chi-square of test contingency was employed which was performed at 0.05 level of significance.

The test result is presented in the table below:

Table One: Distribution of the findings analysis on the response of students of Technical College on the effect of family

The x² was computed as 0.37 the critical value of the df(1) = 3.38 and 0.05 level of significance. The hypothesis was accepted because the calculated value is lower than the expected value.

Hypothesis two

Hypothesis Ho2: There is no correlation between students academic perfirmance form intact homes and those from broken homes.

Distribution of The Findings

Table two: Analysis on the response of students of Technical Colleges on the effect of broken and intact homes on academic performance.

Where X                =              stands for intact homes

Y             =              Broken homes

The hypothesis is rejected because from the calculation — I shows a very high relationship and are both affected by socio-economic status of parents

Summary of findings

1. There no significant difference between academic performance of students from poor background compared to those from wealthy homes.
2. From the result of findings it shows there is no correlation performance between intact homes and broken homes.

 

Discussion of Findings, Conclusion And Recommendation

The findings from analysis will be discussed as follows;

Hypothesis One

The finding of the researcher says that there is no difference between academic performances of students from poor background compared with those from wealthy.

This result is in line with the view of Hill et al (2004) which states Socio-Economic status of parents does affect student’s academic performance but makes possible for both children from rich and poor families to compete with each other.

Hypothesis Two

The findings of the research states that there is no significant difference between the academic performance of children from intact homes and those of broke homes. This shows that whether the students are from intact homes or broken homes, it has nothing to do with their academic performance. There are cases where even when students are living with parents, their parents never have time to check their children’s work; are always too busy, never found at home, only at nights to move very early the next morning, the children hardly have a taste of their parents also there are cases where even when children may not be living with the parents or is living with one of the parent, is determined to make the best of the situation by hard work and much studies, such a child might do well.

This shows that both are affected by socio-economic status. According to Azhar, Nadeem, Naz, Perveen and Sameen (2015) stated that the child’s educational development should start from home, before he actually starts the formal education. Proper attention should paid to educational development of the children for better performance at school.

Conclusion

The study showed that there is relationship between socio-economic status of parents and the choice course made by the students, so parents should try as much as possible to supervise the work of their children, and counseling them into making right career choices, these should be not based or the wealth of family. Also hypothesis one shows that there was no significant different between the performance of children from intact home and broken homes. This reveals that once a child is determined work or study, making use of the human and material resources available to him, whether broken home or not, the sky is his limit, they are encouraged to be serious with their studies whether living with their parent or not. Parents should strive to live together for proper up bring of their children, in order to avoid having dropouts and nonentities as children.

Parents as well as government should provide good learning atmosphere for the students to enhance better performances of the students, on the other hand students should make use these learning materials provided for them by the government and parents and stop perambulating around the streets of Nigeria, and stop forming different cults and nefarious groups that does foster their academic performance in schools. Teachers also have a role to play by making sure these students are well taught, occupied with assignments and class-work so as to create sense of seriousness in them. These assignments should be marked and recorded as continuous assessment. Quizes and test via examination should also be administered by the teachers. Workshop practice should also be taught in all the technical colleges to make them self-reliant and practically oriented.

Recommendation

The recommendations are made based on the findings and conclusion of this study.

1. Parents should endeaviour to support and supervise their children’s academic work in and out of school.
2. Parents should try as much as possible to live together for the proper upbringing of their children and avoid separation or broken homes.
3. Parents and government should try as much as possible to see to needs of students in technical colleges.
4. Government should furnish their libraries with current text books not the old fashioned and outdated ones; they should equip their laboratories, workshops and typing pools for effect studies.
5. Government should provide and install computers in all Technical Colleges employ competent hands who can manage these computers.
6. Government should ensure that salaries of teachers and worker in Technical Colleges are paid as and when due.
7. Also workshop practice should be made compulsory for all students in Technical Colleges so as to be practically oriented and self-reliant.
8. Furthermore practical allowances should be paid to teachers of Technical Colleges by the government.

 

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Nisha Yadav, U.V. Kiran

 Abstract:

Occupational stress is stress involving work. Occupational related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope. Occupational stress results from the complex interactions between large systems of interrelated variables. Occupational stress contributes not only to life stresses, but has an impact on health among security guards. Occupational stress among security guards was assessed in the present study. Occupational stress of security guards has a strong impact on the physical health and their performance at job. Hence the present study focuses on occupational stress among security guards.  The study was carried out in Lucknow on the male and female security guards using multistage sampling technique. A total sample of 180 security guards was selected from three areas- Banks, academic institutions and residential security. Modified version of occupational stress scale developed by Srivastava A.K. (1976) was used. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the security guards profession is very difficult. Security guards suffer from high stress and face problem and dissatisfied with their job and salary. Security guards continuously work for long hours and they are not satisfied with their salary.

Keywords: Occupational stress, Security guards, Physical and Psychological health

INTRODUCTION

Occupational stress relates to the experience of stress in one’s place of work, occupation or employment. Occupational stress is defined as adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological and or behavioral deviations for organizational participants. Occupational stress is a state of tension that is created when a person responds to the demands and pressures that come from work, family and other external sources, as well as those that are internally generated from self imposed demands, obligations and self criticism. The terms work stress, job stress, or occupational stress is used interchangeably (Dollard 2003). Employers and governments have had increasing concern about occupational stress for over twenty years (Le Fevre, et al. 2003). In the past decade, effects of economic globalization and rapid technological changes have resulted in increased workloads and a faster pace in the work place (Dollard 2003).

Stress has been defined in different ways over the years. Originally, it was conceived as pressure from the environment, then as strain within the person. The generally accepted definition today is one of the interactions between the situation and the individual. It is the psychological and physical state that results when the resources of the individual are not sufficient to cope with the demands and pressures of the situation. Thus, stress is more likely in some situations than others and in some individuals than others (Michie, 2002).

According to Selye H (2006), stress is defined as a non-specific response of the body to any demand, positive or negative, made upon it. Thus, occupational stress is any discomfort which is felt and perceived at a personal level and triggered by instances, events or situations that are too intense and frequent in nature so as to exceed a person’s coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately (Malta, 2004).

Stress related with a job or occupation is called occupational stress. Stress is a universal phenomenon, excess of which results in intense and distressing experience. Occupational stress refers to a situation where occupation related factors interact with employee to change i.e. disrupts or enhance his / her psychological and or physiological conditions such that the person is forced to deviate from normal functioning. Occupational stress is generally defined in terms of relationship between a person and his environment. There is potential for stress when an environmental situation is perceived as presenting demand which threatens to exceed the person’s capabilities and resources for meeting it. Every occupation has some stress, which may differ in its degree (Bhatt, 2013).

Security guards give service within several ranges of tasks. In the line of duty in various work settings, guards may be expected to maintain order and to detain criminal violators while appointed to a single property or placed on patrol for various sites or territories. Concisely, a security guard may encounter a variety of situations, locations, and behaviors. With such a heavy responsibility and important duties, it is very important to make sure that the security guards are mentally and behaviorally healthy and safe. Security guard is one of the fastest growing occupations worldwide. Security guard is defined as a privately employed individual, usually uniformed, who is personally hired or paid to protect a defined area of property and people via various direct or indirect methods. The range of duties includes monitoring, guiding, maintaining, and most importantly, preventing crimes.

Security guard is one of the occupations with high risk to get involved in incidents at work such as violence and crime. The needs for public interaction when working, as well as working pattern such as shift working hour and solitary work, contribute to increased risk of incident at work. In addition, presence of other risk factors may elicit the probability for incidents to occur.
Occupational stress is considered a challenge for the employers and because high level of stress results in low productivity, and other employee problems it is necessary that managers find a way of addressing the issue of occupational stress (Elovainio et al, 2002).

 

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The study mainly intends to measure the depth of the amount of occupational stress and burnout one may experience on the other side. The concern for employee’s wellness in the workplace has extended with the focus shifting from employees with challenges to focusing to every employee. Research has been conducted on occupational challenges such as stress.

Security guards working in an organization face physical as well as psychological stress due to the tedious work involved in their job. Occupational stress results from the interaction of the worker and the conditions of work. Views differ on the importance of workers characteristics versus working conditions as the primary cause of occupational stress. The differing viewpoints suggest different ways to prevent stress at work. Difference in individual characteristics such as personality and coping skills can be very important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress. In other words, what is stressful for one person may not be a problem for someone else. This view point underlines prevention strategies that focus on workers and ways to help them cope with demanding job conditions. Hence the present study was undertaken to assess impact of various parameters on the occupational stress among security guards working in various sectors and formulate a regression model.

METHODOLOGY

Multi stage random sampling technique was followed in the present study. The present study was conducted in different areas of Lucknow city. The independent variables considered for the study were various sectors, gender, age, work experience. With the aid of modified version of occupational stress scale developed by Srivastava A.K. (1976) was used. A total of 180 security guards were selected from Lucknow district. Information was collected using interview method. The data was coded, tabulated and analyzed using the PAS software. Regression analysis was used for the statistical analysis of the data.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Linear regression is a statistical procedure for predicting the value of a dependent variable from an independent variable when the relationship between the variables can be described with a linear model. Occupational stress is phenomenon tested across male and female security guards to look into variation in the level of stress.

The following independent categorical variables were considered in the analysis: working institutions, gender, age (<45- >60) and work experience (<1- >5) years. Linear regression analysis with occupational stress as the dependent variable was used to examine the impact of each factor on occupational stress.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE STUDY

The research questions were addressed using linear regression model. The study variables were regression on occupational stress through entering demographic variable (working institutions, age, gender, work experience). This equation model was reported using occupational stress as the dependent variable.

 

Regression analysis was done using enter method all independent variable were entered at a time.

From the model it is elear that among all the variables, gender is the most influencing variable, where in females security guards were found to have high occupational stress in comparison to male security guards. Major impact on the dependent variable showing a β value of .406 at p= .000.

The statistical significance of the variable age when introduced into the analysis was found to be a fair predictor of how this affected stress in the large population of security guards.

From the model it is elear that among all the variables, working institutions influence are found to have average impact on occupational stress in comparison to age and work experience.

From the model it is also elear that among all the variables, work experience is negatively influencing with increase in work experience, the occupational stress was found to be lowered.

For the purpose to check impact on dependent and independent variables of the study, regression analysis was carried out. The value of R Square was found to be 635^a showing that gender variables have strong (40.6%) effect on occupational stress. The table value of coefficients came up as positive indicating that intrinsic and extrinsic variables have positive effect on occupational stress. The value of intrinsic factors was higher (66.98) than the extrinsic factors (16.3%) which means that intrinsic factors have greater influence on occupational stress compared to extrinsic factors.

The findings on the effects of working facilities stress factors on the performance of employees in public universities in Kenya confirm that there is a statistically significant influence of workplace facilities on employee performance. This implies that a positive increase in the conditions of workplace facilities leads to an increase in employee performance. These results supports those of Botha & Pienaar (2006) who reported that income, heavy workload, lack of workspace, lack of resources (including equipment and material to do tasks), absence of proper company procedures, insufficient time to perform duties, meeting deadlines imposed by others, have been introduced as stressors related to work environment.

Occupational stress results from the complex interactions between large systems of interrelated variables. A study conducted on “Occupational stress among bank employees” revealed that private bank employees had high occupational stress due to role ambiguity, role conflict, under participation, powerlessness, low status, strenuous working condition than nationalized bank employees. Thus, the nature of job and working conditions are responsible for level of stress that

employees faced in various sectors. (Niharika & Kiran, 2014)

Occupational stress results from the complex interactions between large system of interrelated variables. A study conducted on “Occupational stress among security guards” revealed that there was highly significant difference between male and female security guards. Female security guards had more difficulty in managing their work and family as compared to male security guards. It was also observed that female security guards have stressful occupation experience because they had to make balance between their family and occupation. In the other case, male security guards have less stressful experience because they were only focused on the occupation. The result obtained on the occupational stress among male and female security guards. Female security guards had to face a lot of problem like difficulty on their work, nose irritation, mosquitoes disturb at night, night shift, less salary, guarding large area, summer and rainy season not comfortable and risky job. Due to occupational stress female security guards were highly affected by occupational stress. (Yadav & Kiran, 2015)

CONCLUSION

The study indicates a positive relationship as a predominant model of impact on occupational stress among security guards, working in various sectors. Some researchers regarded occupational stress as extra-work variable and hence it should be excluded when examining the impact of some variables on occupational stress. In an age of highly dynamic and competitive world, security guards are exposed to all kinds of stressors that can affect them on all realms of life. The growing importance of interventional strategies is felt more at organizational level. Highly significant negative relationship also is observed between independent variables and occupational stress. If organization encourages the implementation of programs and friendly policies they will be successful in reducing the turnover because work life balance practices can be helpful in attracting new security guards.

The results of occupational stress indicate negative impact on people, society and organizations. High levels of stress will cause negative effect on employees physical and mental well being ultimately shows effect on their performance. Most security guards were not satisfied with their occupation because they considered it too difficult relative to the low salary they receive for it. Female security guards have high occupational stress than male security guards as they have to face problems, psychological in nature along with physical problems.

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