CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Learning theories recognize the freedom of teachers in the classroom situation .With this, they create room for acceptability for what ever happens within the class. This is to say that teachers at all levels of learning should be given credit for any relative change in students’ behavior that is beneficial to the students. On the same note, the teachers are to be held liable for anything lacking on the child which the teacher is expected to have impacted in the classroom. Unfortunately, the teacher becomes the scapegoat for every short comings of their students. This is so because the teacher has the professional competence to re-order the learning experience provided for the student and chooses the medium he or she considers best through which the knowledge should be disseminated.

Well behaved students are those ones that abides by the school rules and regulations such as being punctual at school, providing textbooks and other writing materials for them by their parents, prompt payment of school levies to allow them stay in school, punctual and regular at school lessons, putting on the correct school uniforms, doing of take home assignment, not making noise or bulling other students in the classroom and so on. While the delinquent students are those ones that do not abide by the school rules and regulations. In essence, we say they are the opposite of the well behaved students.

Both the well behaved and the delinquent students do exist in schools, they sit in the same classroom, they receive the same lessons, and they are thought by the same teachers and at the end of the term or session, they sit for the same examinations and their script are marked by the same teachers or examiners; why then should there be no difference in their academic performance since they are the opposite of each other. For example, students from broken homes who lack adequate parental care at home and are not well taken care of should not be expected to perform well academically since there is no proper discipline impacted on the child from home.

Juvenile delinquency on the other hand is becoming rampant today and if care is not taken, these students may become a menace in our society. It is now on the increase since the delinquent ones has nearly outnumbered the well-behaved ones and this is causing a lot of problems in our schools and to the country as well. A lot has been written on juvenile delinquency as the major factor of poor academic performance of delinquent students and as such, a lot should be done to curb it as it regards the way it affects the academic performance of the students. This study is committed to finding out the comparism of the academic performance of the well-behaved students and that of the delinquent secondary school students.

Juvenile delinquency includes not only the students has violated any adult rule but also the students who habitually deports himself so as to endanger the morals of himself or others thus affecting his performance academically and this is not hampered or disturbed for the well-behaved students.

Juvenile delinquency includes truancy, stealing, quarrelling, noise making, immoral or indecent conduct, ganstarism, using of vulgar languages in public, cultism and so on. All the above named factors contribute to the poor academic performance of delinquent secondary school students. Any students who exclude him or her self from these acts will excel academically compared to those involved in them.

It must be realized that the academic performance of school students varies according to their locality i.e rural and urban areas. In the cities, though there are some areas where the delinquent act is negligible and others in which it is well above average. Some could be traced to the trait of the child that is children who come from homes where criminal acts are common can often be inclined to be delinquent; this means that they have inherited such traits from their parents.

The family is known to be the source for both the well-behaved and the delinquent school students. This is because some children are fully provided with their needs while most of them lack proper parental care and control for one reason or the other. In a home where the child feels rejected, unsecured, unloved and unwanted, there is the tendency for the child to be come delinquent. For example, an under aged girl could enter into an unmatured relationship simply because she is interested in what any one can give or offer. The delinquent needs assistance in making adjustments that are socially acceptable so as not to find themselves in difficulty.