THE AFFECTATIONS OF CULT ACTIVITIES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MISSION SCHOOLS
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THE
AFFECTATIONS OF CULT ACTIVITIES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY
SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MISSION SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
The research
work aimed at examining the affectation of cult activities on the academic
performance of secondary school students in mission schools. The research was
carried out in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau state where five
missions owned secondary schools were randomly selected for the study. From the
sample schools, the researcher selected two hundred students from SS One– SS
Two, five principles and eighty teachers as the sample units for the study.
Research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. To answer
the research questions and hypothesis, the researcher elicited information from
the two hundred students, five principles and eighty teachers using a five
scale likert structured questionnaire type. The data collected were analyzed
using the criteria mean and response mean scores statistical technique and the
hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using chi-square. The
findings of study revealed the molestation, killing, destruction of properties,
drug use, raping and maiming, are the most prevalent activities of cult members
in mission secondary schools. The findings of the study also revealed peer
pressure as the major causes of students’ involvement in cult practices. The
study showed that cult activities have negative influence on the academic
performance of senior secondary students in mission schools. Thus, it was
revealed that students who are members of cult groups have no regard for
academic activities such as attending classes, reading and doing assignment.
Secondly, that most cult members rely only on all forms of examination
mal-practices to pass their academic tests and examination and thirdly, the
study showed that students who involved themselves in cult practices perform
poorly at every school examination. The research also revealed that effective
teaching and learning of CRK and Civic Education, adequate and proper guidance
and counseling services, adequate and regular orientations and public speeches
on cultism are ways of sensitizing students on the affectations of cult activities
on their academic performance. Finally, the study revealed that regular
sanitization of students on the affectation of cultism, creation of awareness
about cultism, setting up special committee in schools to deal with cultism,
punishment such as 21 years imprisonment or out right expulsion of students
found to be cult members as well as intensive teaching and learning of
religious, civic and moral education and establishment of effective counseling
unit in schools are ways by which cult practices can be curbed in schools.
Based on the findings, recommendations were made; that perpetrator of cult
activities in schools should be serious prosecuted and punished, they should be
expelled from school or convicted of 21 years imprisonment, that awareness should
be created about the affectations of cult activities and that students should
be regularly and adequately sensitized about the dangers associated with cult
practices in schools. Finally, that counseling services should be made
available in our secondary schools more than ever.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Of all the
factors militating against smooth academic calendar, secret cult activities
appear to be the most intractable today. Ritualistic tendencies, display of
acts of terrorism, and the wanton destruction of life and property perpetrated
by members of secret cults have become grave social concern in and outside the
school system. The situation is rapidly assuming alarming and wilder
proportion.
The reckless
use of offensive weapons including arms and ammunition by cult members or
groups portends a grave danger for the growth of education in our country. Ojo,
(1995) paints a gloomier picture of the situation when he writes that “students
keep dying, getting maimed and disfigured; they keep being sexually harassed by
occult confraternities. Yet the school authorities are doing nothing to
confront the evil”. (p.47)
Lar (2005)
in the same vain, points that the activities of cult members have led to so
much loss of life and property especially in our institutions of learning;
Students kill and injure themselves during intra and inter cult clashes on
revenge missions valuables like cars and houses are burnt down electronics,
provisions in shops among others are looted.
Cult
activities have continued to thrive in Nigeria due to enormous impression of
securing invincibility of cult members. A major factor working in favour of
cult groups is mass ignorance on the part of students especially the new
students who are hoodwinked and deceived to join one secret cult or the other.
Secret cult societies could be traced down to the Egyptians. According ancient
Egyptian anthropology, cultism is the state or a phenomenon where persons are
bound together with a common belief or cause usually through some ritual.
The word ‘cult’ means a system of
religious worship especially one that is expressed in rituals. From this definition cults now popularly
known as confraternities, have assumed monstrous features in our institutions
of learning. To this end our various institutions, which were hitherto models
for intellectual quest and social upliftment have become citadels of violence
and terrorism. The pertinent question that one may ask is; are the phenomenons
of cultism and cult activities just entering our institutions of leaning? The
answer is simply no; this is because international figures have been known to
be members of the pirates’ confraternity in their college days. This is further
confirmed when there were violent clashes between the Eiye confraternity and
Buccaueers at the University of Ibadan in (1989) some notable professors and
doctors at the institution were found to be patrons and bankers of these cults.
The
proliferation of cult group such as Vikings, the black axe, the morphine, the
buccaneers, the pirates, the black arrow
to mention but a few have become
familiar features in our secondary schools today even in Mission owned
Secondary schools. According Olaoye,
(1999) in 1994, nine students of Baptist High School, Abeokuta were caught performing
initiation rite for members of their cult in the midnight. A similar incident
was reported in Abia state, where the principal of Methodist College Uzoakoli
caught thirteen students with guns in protestation of the expulsion of two
students belonging to their cult over the allegation of raping female students
in the school. Reports from various institutions as posited by Babatunde (2010)
have shown that most secondary schools in Nigeria have become arenas for cult
activities.
All the
activities and philosophy of secret cults manifest perpetration of acts of
violence. Their operations are conducted in secrecy and are carried out during
nocturnal initiations and ceremonies. Drug use, extortion, rape, maiming,
stealing, arson, examination malpractices and murder are some of the aftermaths
of their secret activities. The philosophy of secret cults according to Osagie,
(2004) is demonstrated by their slogans and names, for instance the pirates
say: “Blood for blood” “measure for measure”
“No friend no foe”.
Black Axe:
“The axe never falls without coming up with blood stain: In our domain “Mistake
hath no place and we don’t believe in coincidence”. cobrab: say “The bleeder
must be bled in full measure”.
The
philosophy and composition of secret cults suggests organized criminality. It
is worth pondering a number of important questions. What types of decent and
well integrated students and academic environment would our secondary schools
have if the philosophy of these secret cults was positive? Can we still have a
fully relevant education with the daily increase in cult activities? What
legacies is the present generation of our institutions of learning leaving for
future generations? Has cultism contributed anything positive to its members,
their respective families, school environment and society at large? These
questions require thoughtful answers from cult members, sponsors and
sympathizers; and hence the statement of the problem of this research.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
It is no
longer news that one of the evolving problems in our mission schools today is
the hydra headed issue of cultism. Cult activities and practices are becoming
common amongst secondary school students even in mission owned secondary
schools where students are expected to attain high moral values and academic
excellence. There is no doubt that many mission secondary school students are
making their ways into secret cults but the question is why are students in
mission schools joining secret cults and how do cult activities influence their
academic performance?
Cultism runs
counter to the principles and practices of Nigerian education and the affect of
cult activities are felt at the individual, family, societal, school, national
and international levels.
The
individual cultist loses his self identify to enable him wear the group
identify. He then loses his ability to think and act independently. His values
are distorted and he is soon looked upon by the society as a criminal. His
academic standard makes no meaning to him.
Cult activities
yield no return to the huge investment made by parents and society in these
students. Instead, they lower productivity, slow down national development and
breed and culture of violence, fear and instability at all levels.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
The main
focus of this study is to examine the various kinds of cult activities and
their influences on secondary school students’ academic performance in mission
schools in Jos North local government area of Plateau State. Specifically, the
study is set to achieve the following objectives.
(1) To identify the prevalent cult
activities in mission secondary schools.
(2) To identify the causes of
secondary school students’ involvement in cult practices.
(3) To examine how cult activities
affect the academic performance of secondary schools students in mission
schools.
(4) To sensitize students on the
affectations of cultism on their academic performance.
(5) To suggest possible ways of
curbing the occurrences of cult activities in mission schools in Jos North.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To be able
to achieve the above objectives of the study, the following research questions
were raised to guide the study.
(1) What kinds of cult activities are
prevalent in mission secondary schools in Jos North local government area?
(2) What are the causes of students’ involvement
in cult practices?
(3) To what extent do cult activities
influence the academic performance of secondary school students in mission
schools in Jos North?
(4) How would secondary school
students be sensitized on the affectations of cultism on their academic
performance?
(5) How can the activities of cult
groups in mission secondary schools in Jos North Local Government Area be
curbed?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
The
following null hypotheses are formulated to guide the study and were tested at
0.05 level of significance.
(1) There is no significant
relationship between students’ gender and their involvement in cult activities.
(2) There is no significant relationship
between students’ awareness and their involvement in cult practices in mission
secondary schools.
(3) There is no significant
relationship between cult activities and academic performance of secondary
school students in mission schools.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The findings of this study would
definitely be helpful to parents, teachers, students, counselors, school
administrators, curriculum planers and all stakeholders in education. To the
parents the study would be enlightenment on the kind of secret cult activities
that are prevalent in our secondary schools especially in mission schools. The
findings of the study would expose parents to appreciate the inherent dangers
associated with cult activities. It will also help them advice their wards on
the need to keep away from cult groups and their practices.
Teachers through the findings of this
study would be better informed about the activities of cultism in mission
schools and would help them to devise instructional strategies to help students
understand the dangers of such activities and learn the implications of cult
activities for their studies.
For the students, the study would
educate them on the influences of cult activities and how they affect their
academic perform. The findings of this study would also help the students to
know the dangers of cultism and this knowledge would guide them to shun cultism
and face their studies.
Guidance counselors would use the
awareness and insight gathered from the study to device proactive and effective
counseling strategies to help students desist from cultism and improve on their
academic performance.
School administrators especially in
mission schools would be exposed to the findings of this study especially to
the various causes of students’ involvement in cult practices and devise ways
of curbing or eradicating cultism in schools. This knowledge if properly
implemented would help school administrators to create an academic environment
that would be orderly and high achievement oriented in nature.
The findings
of this study would also help curriculum planners to see the need to review the
existing curriculum of studies for secondary schools in the state to see the
need to include civic and moral education as a compulsory subject for all
students because it would serve as a means of fighting social vices including
cultism.
Other
stakeholders in education and the general public would also benefit from the
findings of this study in the sense that the findings of the study would help
them to understand the dangers of cult practices in our society and see the
need to put all hands on deck to ensure total eradication of cultism in our
secondary schools in particular and society at large.
1.7 THEORETICAL/CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
One
significant theory related to this study is the theory of crime and delinquency
as pioneered by Edwin Sutherland (2003). According to Edwin, criminal behaviour
is learned by individuals being in contact with situations where criminality is
favourably defined. This theory makes the explanation of crime largely a matter
of ordinary learning process, rather than biological predisposition. The
principle of this theory is concerned with unrealistic and unlimited
aspirations which are common with the children of the rich and high class
members of the society. Edwin posits
that among the children of the advantaged, there is generally a thirst for
novelties, unfamiliar pleasure, nameless sensations all of which they believe
they can forcefully obtain through secret cult membership.
The theory
also sees the collapse of the family institution as contributing factor
predisposition students to join secret cult. According to Edwin, many children
no longer have parents they can look up to for inspirations. The existing
families only set standard that encourage disorientation. For instance, some
secret cult members in schools are from family background of cult. Such
students have grown up with the awareness that their parents have special
rooms, which no one else is permitted to entire. These rooms according to Edwin
are usually filled with all sorts of emblems and effigies which nobody can
touch. More often, these parents are discovered to go out at night to attend
meetings that are never discussed at home. Some students who are either
socialized to such situations or through imitation end up being cult members in
schools. Another principle of this theory is that moral development and
cognitive growth is dependent on certain activities. In other words, the
development of brain power is not fixed at birth, but is a function of
appropriate activities during any particular stage.
Students
must engage in right contact and appropriate activities to learn and develop
their mental faculty in more useful things rather than engaging themselves in
cult practices which spell out doom for them in future. The fundamental problem
here is on how to engage mission secondary school students in positively
directed activities that will help their moral and cognitive development rather
than allowing them being in contact with situations where criminality such as
cultism is favourably defined.
The choice
of this theory is well informed by the need to provide for greater involvement
of secondary school students in positively directed activities that ensure
moral and cognitive development which when achieve, will discourage involvement
in cult practices.
1.8 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The scope of
the study is limited just to cult activities in mission secondary schools in Jos
North Local Government Area with the aim of examining the influence of such
activities on the academic performance of students. Again the study focuses on
senior secondary school students based on the fact that they are more matured
and have spent more number of years than the junior secondary students.
1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
This section
is aimed at defining terms as used in the context of this study.
(1) Influence: The dangers of cult
activities on the academic performance of students in mission secondary schools
in Jos North Local Government Areas.
(2) Academic Performance: The scores
of secondary school students in Christian Religion Studies.
(3) Affectation: Observed dangers,
ills or consequences due to cult activities.
(4) Cultism: Practice or reverence to other deities
outside Almighty God.
(5) Cult activities: Diabolical
actions and displays usually anti-social in nature perpetrated by students
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