CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Peer as a concept can be described as a person of the same age, status or ability as another specified person. On a second note, peer group is a community in which most of or all of the members have roughly the same characteristics, such as age, class, education, merit, rank, standing or status.

According to Workman (2001), peer group are an informal primary group of people who share a similar status and who are usually of roughly the same age, tended to travel around and interact with the social aggregate.

It can also be described as a sub-group of a society in which membership is determined by similar age, sharing the same social status, etc. with authority to employ legalised force. Members of a particular peer group often have similar interest and background bounded by the premise of sameness.

However, some peer group are very diverse crossing social divide such as socio-economic status, level of education, race, creed, culture or religion. Peer group have a significant influence on the psychological and social adjustment for group or individual viewpoint. Peer group consist of all male and female or even both males and female. Since peers are an important influence and forming peer relationship is a major developmental task of adolescents, they tend to conform to the most obvious aspect of peer culture such as dress.

Show (2009) asserted that members of a peer group have common features. Such characteristics include belonging to the same age group, having common interest, sharing common values, influencing each other’s decision, rendering assistances (this can be either financial or helping to perform a task) and providing useful suggestion and advice to one another.

The peer group could also be referred to as an agency of enculturation and learning. It comprises group of individuals who are considered to be in the same age group. Children often develop a sense of self from their surrounding including relatives, teachers and peers. When children move out from family to child-care centres, school and the community at large they begin to form attachment and friendship emerge through their play. These relationships influence behaviour. Even infants and toddlers are observed reacting to other infants by touching them, by crying when others cry, and later by offering nurturance or comfort. By about age three, early friendship begins to form and children’s peers begin to have a more lasting influence. Heril (2000) maintained that peer group have an even stronger influence than that of parents.

Enwerem (2004) noted that in pre-colonial Ibo community, the peer group is a notable factor. During the period, the peer group is used for community development programmes such as bush clearing, market construction, construction of roads, and even in a form of defence against warring communities. These peer group are often seen playing in the village square and in either cases, during festive period, they form themselves into group performing one activities or another.

It has been noted that in those early days particularly before the advent of 21st century, the peer group is limited to the immediate environment. During that time the peer group is made up of children in the same neighbourhood who are of the same age group. These children sometimes form themselves into group for hunting, fishing, playing and some sorts of games in the moonlight night.

However, in recent times, the peer group has taken up a new dimension. According to Adeyniye (2009), the advent of the internet has not only turn the world into one global community but has also widen the peer group. According to him, the peer group now comprise all children who are of the same age having online interaction. Irrespective of where they are individually. Here, we often see a particular age group joining social network sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Netlog, twitter, yahoo, etc. the influence this children have on each other is noticeable in the way they dress, the way they walk, talk, even address adults and teachers.

Academic performance on the other hand is the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. Academic performance is commonly measured by examination or continuous assessment.

According to Oluwatosin (2002), academic performance is something you do or achieve at school, college or university, in class, in a laboratory, library or fieldwork. It does not include sport or music. An academic performance such as graduating 1st in one’s class, is sometimes a purely qualitative matter, while having the findings of lengthy, comprehensive research published by recognized journal is also notable academic performance. Being named head/chairman of a particular department in a university is both a professional and academic performance.

Teachers’ observation made up the bulk of the assessment and today’s summation or numerical method of determining how well a student is performing, is fairly a recent intention. Different teachers valued different aspect of learning more highly than others, and although some standardization was attempted in order to make the system fairer, the problem continued. Today changes have been made to incorporate differentiation for individual student’s abilities and exploration of alternate methods of measuring performance is ongoing.

The tracking of academic performance fulfils a number of purposes. Areas of achievement s and failure in a student’s academic career need to be evaluated in order to foster improvement and make full use of the learning process. Results provide a framework for talking about how students fare in school and a constant standard to which all student are held, performance results also allow student to be ranked and sorted holding teachers and schools accountable for the component of each and every grade.

Performance in school is grading students demonstrate their knowledge by taking written and oral test, performing presentation, turning in homework and participating in class activities/discussion. Teacher evaluation in the form of letter or number grades and side notes to describe how well a student has done. At the level, students are evaluated by their performance on standardized tests geared towards specific ages and based on a set of achievement of students in each age group are expected to meet (Chel 2011, Adekoye, 2011).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The impact peer relationship have on the student’s behaviour is felt everywhere, in the classroom, at home, in the church, even in the larger society. In 2011 during her teaching practice experience, the researcher noticed the impact of peer relationship in the classroom. A situation whereby students fail to do their assignment because their friends whom they study with were not present such situations cannot be left unnoticed. It is this and other phenomenon that prompted the researcher into choosing the topic because it is generally believed that peer group serves as a barometer for children examining themselves and their feelings about themselves and family. If the impact of peer relationship is as outlined above, what then is the impact of peer group on the academic performance of students in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo state?

1.3 Research Questions

The following research questions shall guide the study:

1. How does peer group influence students into joining secrete cult in Secondary School s?
2. Does students’ interaction with their friends result to incidence of examination malpractice?
3. In what easy do peer group interaction lead to acts of truancy in Secondary Schools?
4. To what extent does students’ interaction with their friends result to poor study habits in Secondary Schools?

1.4 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of peer group on academic performance of students. However, the study will focus on the following areas:

1. How peer group influence students into joining secrete cult in Secondary Schools
2. Student interaction with their friends and incidence of examination malpractice in Secondary School
3. Peer group interaction and the acts of truancy in Secondary School
4. Students interaction with their friends and poor study habits in Secondary School .

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study will be of great benefit to students, parents, counsellors, educators, educational policy makers.

The findings of the study will help students to choose their peers with caution.

The study will equally provide useful information to parents and how they can help the students choose their friends.

The study will also benefit the counsellor in that it will provide them with information on the influence of peers on the academic performance of students and how they can assist the students to deal with peer pressure.

Educators will also benefit from this study since the finding of the study will guide them on how they can teach the student peer relationship.

Lastly the study will also benefit educational policy makers in that it will provide them with information on the impact of peer group on academic performance of students so that they will know the areas to focus on when making policies that relate to peer interaction.

1.6 Scope/Delimitation of the Study

The study covers the impact of peer group on the academic performance of students. The study is limited to five (5) out thirty-eight (38) Secondary Schools in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State.

1.7 Operational Definition of Terms

Impact: a powerful effect something have on somebody.

Peer Group: these are children or adolescents who are of the same age or maturity level and have regular contact with each other.

Academic Performance: This refers to the intellectual ability of how the children perform in test or examination at the end of the session.

Students: this is a group of people studying in an institution.

Local Government Area: this is an administrative division of a country that the third tier of government is responsible for.

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