Education is an instrument of social, mental and economic development through which right values and attitude for proper development are inculcated. Child abuse and its consequences which is the unjust treatment given to a child, disturb this development process.
It is a practice whereby children are battered, deprived of some basic needs in the home and at school. The saying that the child is the father of the man recognizes the fact that the quality of today’s child will determine the quality of tomorrow’s man.
This study was necessitated by the researchers encounter with dismay the multitude of school age children roaming in the street during school hours. They hawk goods, wash cars, beg for food etc. these activities are deprivation of the children, the right of education. Apart from that, they are sent to hawk on daily basis ad warned not to return with the unsold goods. Girls turned to promiscuity ad boys will turn to stealing in order to make up the money for their mistress or masters as the case may be. In this process, some are killed and others may run on cars when crossing road.
Truly, the present economic hardship in the country is a fascination or thus child abuse. In this condition, education of the child becomes the victim of economic down turn of the nation. For those that attend school, many are hawking and pushing wheel-barrow, car wash as part time job to raise the school fees. While others feeds ad cloth the family through the venture. As a result of this abusing condition, the cumulative influence of these activities may have poor academic performance as its consequences.
The offshoot of this child abuse and the consequences is examination malpractice to make for academic deficiencies resulting from failure to attend school regularly and devotion to class activities.
Thus, a child generally is a boy or a girl of any age between infancy and adolescence. But for the convince of law, a definite age bracket is ascribed to a child.
According to Eigbe (1996), a child in the southern states in Nigeria is a person between the age of 0 – 14years and in northern states between 0 – 12years.
Child abuse is a type of physical of mental injury or maltreatment of a person who is regarded as a child. The definition of child abuse has been expanded considerably to include more than just the beaten and sexually abuse child. It extends to any condition injurious to child’s physical or emotional health that has been inflicted by parents, guidance or other caretakers and schoolmates. The situation should be that of intentional infliction of injuries other than accidental means like suffering, harm by reasons of consequences, malnutrition, sexual abuse of growing up under condition which threaten his or her survival. Definite knowledge as to the nature and scope of child abuse appears to be lacking due to the difficulties associated with the definition of the concept as well as the cross cultural global issue regarding what is and what is not child abuse. In western orientation, child abuse extends to various misuses of children, especially with regards to functions relating to certain responsibilities such as “child labour” either in the form of “farm work “, or street hawking which many children in African cultural content embark upon as an acquired work rule in an extended family system.
Children belong to the defenseless and disadvantaged group. They should not be harmed or maltreated in any way as they are incapable of appreciating the dangers they face and the adverse effects which ill treatment have on their future development.
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