CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Home environment is a major factor that determines the health of any child, student. How clean or dirty the environment is will largely determine if the child will be healthy or not. Most of the Nigerian parents raise their children in unclean, unhealthy environments; these could be a choice or because they cannot afford a better, clean and healthy space. Every second in the country, about 10 children are infected; die from diverse diseases contacted from their home environment or as a result of the polluted air they breathe, the dirty water they drink and bath with, exposure to smoke from generators, burning, etc, from road traffic injuries, unintentional poisonings, which can come as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals and pesticides in their home environments. These environmental hazards and other illnesses have shortened the lives of millions globally. Most of the environmental disease which can hamper the health of a child or student is attributable to a few major risks and they include unsafe water and sanitation, vector-borne disease, indoor smoke from solid fuels, toxic hazards and global environmental change and unsustainable patterns of a the country’s development that contribute to air pollution, traffic injury and other forms of urban environmental degradation. Human beings are at the major concern for a long lasting development. They are designated or giving the full right to a healthy and yielding life. The level of human impact largely depends on home environment. The home environment is perceived to be a strong influence on a child. A home environment is also perceived as having significant importance for child developmental outcomes like as cognitive ability, school readiness, academic achievement and emotional adjustment. Naturally, the home of the child is the first place he/she steps into when born into the world by parents.

A home is a place where pupils, children reside with their parents or guardian and it is the place where they are raised. It is a place where a child starts to learn good and acceptable behaviors and values of the society in which they find themselves. The family is a social unit and it is the source of early stimulation and experience in children. Home environment negatively of positively affects a child at the most earliest stage of his or her life, specifically, at the time when his mind is most willing to receive. It gives the first impression which may probably last through the whole life of the child. The child sees the parents, siblings and other things in their direct environment to be most important and those things/people are also capable of promoting or demoting him when it comes to self-worth, health and academic performance. The environment is the direct surrounding in which the child finds her/himself in. It is also explained to be the physical and psychological conditions that influence children’s health, academic performance and their entire life as a whole.

The parents or guardian of the students are giving the task of making available the right home environment that will foster good health and productive learning for their wards. In addition, in pupil’s home environment, a number of factors that affects their health, academic performances, etc include: parental educational background, occupation, economic status, marital status and home location; family size and peer group. The home environment therefore means the family background of the students; which comprise of all the human and material resources available at the home that affects the student’s health and living, such as the parent’s level of education, their occupation, socio-economic status and socializing facilities present in the house. Hence, the home is the major and first institution for providing the child’s good health, primary socialization and laying the educational foundation for the child upon which the other agents of socialization are craed from. The home environment of a child largely contributes to the good or poor health of the child.

STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL PROBLEM

The poor academic performance that has been recorded in overtime in the educational system has been attributed to several factors amongst which are the home environments which has not only affected students’ academic performance but has also affected their health status. As we all know the popular saying that health is wealth, no meaningful development or growth in terms of social well-being or academically can occur in a society that is not healthy. The health of public secondary school students has been a cause for serious concern as it has grossly affected their academic achievement among other things. This has ultimately led to the poor development of our public secondary schools and the educational sector by extension.