Consequences Of Child Abuse On Students Academic Performance As Perceived By Secondary School Teachers
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN METROPOLIS]

Incident of sexual abuse abounds everywhere in homes, schools and the society and interferes with the normal, healthy development of the child. In schools especially where there are young male teachers, there is the tendency for the teachers to take advantage of the young, innocent, harmless and naïve school girls. Some teachers lure these students who sometimes transfer their parental affection to them, into having illicit affairs and relationship. At other times, the teachers deny the students their right and grades in demand for sexual gratification. The relationship is not only between male teachers and female students but also extends to that between male teachers and male students especially in the boys’ school. These male teachers do not only fondle and play with the students genitals but also may force these young ones to play with their own and go ahead to commit homosexual acts. The same also goes for the relationship between female teachers and female students especially in girls’ school. Incident of lesbianism occurs frequently and the students may find it difficult to report these cases.
This unfortunate situation is quite disheartening, yet it is happening on a daily basis. For teachers to allow themselves to descend so low in luring and sometimes forcing students into affairs is contrary to the ethics of the profession and degrades the teachers self-worth and dignity.
Teachers should realize that they are called into the profession to safe guard and protect the young ones under their care and as such should create an environment devoid of any hindrance to students’ active participation in school. The consequences of sexual activities involving teenage students and their school teachers include unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases such as Gonorrhea and Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome (AIDS) which could lead to eventual withdrawal of the child from school.
In schools, some form of neglect can be identified which can have damaging effect on the educational development of a child. In terms of physical neglect, some schools may fail to provide adequate supervision, safety and hygiene for their school children. In this era where children under two years are sent to school, it sometimes becomes too cumbersome for teachers to deal with a large number of them at the same time providing the proper attention that is required. In some day care centers, children are left to play and soil their clothes while others are left with wet diapers unattended to for hours. For older children in nursery/primary sections, the teachers do not have the time to go round and supervise the children when copying notes or doing class work. The students also are left to play unattended to and in the process get serious injuries which could lead to their being hospitalized and having to miss school for days or weeks.
As a result of not providing appropriate school needs for the children such as good seating arrangements, enough classrooms, writing boards, and other school materials, children are made to learn under very hard and harsh school conditions. It is not uncommon in public primary schools to find children studying in a classroom with leaking roof or under shades of trees or very dilapidated classroom blocks. This gives room for children to play truant ultimately having very serious effect on their learning ability.
Very few teachers if there are any, have time to attend to the emotional needs of the pupils in their classroom. Sometimes a child comes in late to school, sleeps through the class period or pays no attention in the classroom and yet the teachers do not show any sign of affection or love towards such children. This may have been children rejected by their parents who now feel that the best place to send them to is school. At the school, the child is made to feel less than human being. Such children become alienated and may withdraw from the school. Gaudin (1999) reported that neglected children have the worst delays in language comprehension and expression while the psychological neglected children score lowest in Intelligence Quotient tests. It therefore becomes pertinent that teachers and the school authority should pay attention to the needs of each and every pupil in the classroom in order to encourage pupils learning. Students also fall ill in schools and left unattended to until the school is over, they therefore do not benefit in the classroom. It is therefore necessary that each school should have a sick bay where students can be treated until their parents pick them up. The sick bays should also be adequately stocked with relevant drugs. Child exploitation apart from being carried out at home by the parents also takes place in the school. Some teachers use children to work in their farm, students’ are also sent out by their teachers to fetch water, cook, and wash clothes at the time they should be learning. Some of the student’s are not conversant with these kinds of works, it therefore present challenges and could affect their health. The precious time that could have been used for studying is wasted on jobs that have no relevant to academic pursuit and this can have serious effect on students’ ability to concentrate in the class. This type of trend should be seriously investigated and teachers warned to desist from such acts.