-
Eating Habit As A Determinant Of Academic Performance Among Secondary School Students In Ikenne Local Government Area
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
-
-
-
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Most
students in our secondary schools today are finding it difficult to
concentrate and do well in their studies and because of this, academic
achievement becomes a problem. Many of the academic problems students
face is fueled by poor nutrition and lack of proper eating habit.
Academic performance is measured through continuous assessments and
examinations. Academic performance can be seen as a problem when
students are not able to reach the short-term or long-term goals in
their education. When students do not perform well in school, it can be
seen to be that the students did not study hard for the examination or
test and also can be caused by poor concentration in school, poor
memory, poor ability to follow through topics and also poor coordination
in class.
Academic performance refers to a student’s success in
meeting their short-term or long-term goals in education. It could be a
success or failure. Poor academic performance according to Aremu (2003)
is a performance that is adjudged by the examiner or tester and
significant others as falling below expected standard. In secondary
schools, we face poor academic performance which can be seen as either
the fault of the students or the teacher or even the school. The main
aim of going to school is to be able to achieve something academically
like a university degree, WAEC certificate and so on. Therefore, if then
a student is not able to achieve anything academically during the years
in school, there is a problem. We have identified some of the problem
to be the student’s lack of concentration, poor memory, poor ability to
follow up, poor coordination, the student finding it hard to study, poor
exercise, poor nutrition, poor eating habit and so on. The falling
level of academic performance is attributable to teacher’s non-use of
verbal reinforcement strategy (Morakinyo 2003). Lack of facilities has
an adverse effect on the performance of students in the less endowed
school (Dewees 1999). This shows that schools also affect a student’s
academic performance. The researcher would mainly be focusing on the
eating habit of students.
Eating habits can be seen as the way a
person eats, considered in terms of what types of food are eaten, in
what quantity and when (Collins English dictionary 2016). We therefore
can say that poor eating habit can be seen as the ways people eat, the
food they eat, and when they eat which affects their health negatively.
Eating habits are determined by some factors such as: individual
preference, cultural influence, social influence, religious influence,
economic influence, environmental influence and even political influence
(diet 2016). There are some poor eating habits experienced by students
almost daily. They include: skipping breakfast, late night eating,
drinking little water, eating large quantity of food and eating during
activities. For skipping of breakfast, studies show that skipping
breakfast detracts from scholastic achievement (Clarke University,
2006). Late night eating is when students eat late at night because they
are hungry or had a really long stressful day. Students drink little or
no water. Water is good for the body but students tend to drink little
or no water but rather take a lot of soda or soft drink or any liquid
with a lot of sugar. It is advised that students carry a water bottle
along to class (Clarke University, 2006). Eating large quantity of food
is the fact that students eat large quantities of food when they are
hungry or because the food is really good and they do not like the next
meal so they stuff themselves so that they can skip the next meal by
saying they are not hungry. When it comes to eating during activities,
students like to eat during classes, afternoon and night reading time,
when they are doing their assignment in their free time and when they
are reading. They also eat when they are emotional or stressed. Students
that are well fed and have proper nourishment are ready to learn.
Breakfast
is the most important meal of the day. It makes us active for the
workload ahead of us. Eating breakfast gives us the energy and makes us
active. Therefore, when students skip their breakfast because they are
running late for class simply means that the students would not be
active the whole day in class. It would lead to sleeping in class and
not participating at all. For late night eating, students tend to eat
late at night before going to bed because they had a long stressful day
with class, sports, and different activities. They become tired and
hungry making them eat. This affects their sleeping. Eating too close to
bedtime will give sleeping difficulty since your body will be busy
digesting food. When students do not sleep well, the next day the
students would be so tired to participate in class, instead, the
students would want to sleep making the students unable to concentrate
in class. This affects their academic performance. When it comes to
drinking water, students prefer soda or any sugary drink to just
drinking water and it has been seen that water has many positive effects
on the body. Water in fact helps the body in so many ways like it boost
the brain, it helps overcome fatigue especially in class, it flushes
the kidney leading to less stomach ache also, water prevents pains in
the muscles and joints (Schwecherl 2014). With all these that water
performs, when students drink a lot of water and less of sugary liquid
the students would not experience anything that would keep them out of
class making him or her perform better academically. For eating large
quantity of food, students eat large quantities of food to help them
through the next activity or to prevent eating the next meal. This is a
poor eating habit for students because too much food makes the student
tired and unable to achieve what was meant to be achieved. When students
are tired, the students are unable to participate in class and thereby
achieving very little academically. Also, for eating during activities,
students face a lot of activities a day and the only way to survive is
to eat their way through those activities. They secretly eat during
class, during their free time, during their reading time, even during
sports time. Excess eating affects the concentration of the students in
those activities.
Due to the above, this study is set out to look
into eating habit as a determinant of academic achievement amongst
secondary school students in Ikenne Local Government Area.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
-
-
ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study examined Eating Habit As A Determinant Of Academic Performance Among Secondary School Students In Ikenne Local Government Area.More specifically, the study sought to assess the eating habits and academic performance among secondary school students.The study emphasizes on the problem which sees that most students in our secondary schools today are unable to eat healthily due to the time of their classes.The study comprises of students in senior secondary school classes two and three (SS ... Continue reading---
