Consequences Of Child Abuse On Students Academic Performance As Perceived By Secondary School Teachers
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN METROPOLIS]

Statement of the Problem
Child abuse is not just a social problem; it is rather an intellectual and economic problem which is evident in the performance of children in schools. In a situation where over seventy percent (70%) of student that write the WAEC and NECO cannot boast of five credit pass including Mathematics and English Language, then education sector need to be looked into. A common feature of some Nigerians in the twentieth century is to see and treat children the way they want. They see children as some body who should be seen and not heard, children, should be seen to and not capable to replying who should be abused and neglected. The cultural traditional system continues to relegate the position of children to the background without giving, them their fundamental human right with dignity and the capability of growing and developing to adulthood. (Kolade 2004).
The impact of such cruelty on educational development of the children cannot be over emphasized, such children if at all are provided with opportunity to attend schools are bound to be failures, delinquent, lack conducive home, environments and conducive relationship with peer group in the school.
Kolade, Racheal & Fehintola (2004), carried out a research on the impact of child abuse on student academic performance in secondary school in Oyun Local Government of Kwara State, the out come of the research revealed that child labour adversely affect student performance in school. To the best knowledge of the researcher, there was however no specification as to the sources of the data analyzed by previous researchers on the abuse of student, which is the gap the researcher wishes to fill on the impact and consequences of child abuse on students’ academic performance.
Also Mbong (2002) in his work on implication of child abuse on the education sector in Nigeria looked at how child labour and abuse has adversely affected the education sector in Nigeria without paying special interest on the children performance.
Research Questions
    The following research questions were formulated to aid this study:
1.    What is the consequence of child abuse on student’s academic performance as perceived by teachers in Ilorin Metropolis?
2.    Is there any difference in the consequences of child abuse on the academic performance of students as perceived by teachers on the basis of gender? 
3.    Is there any difference in the consequences of child abuse on the academic performance of students based on religion?
4.    Is there any difference in the consequences of child abuse on the academic performance of students based on teaching experience?
5.    Is there any difference in the consequences of the academic performance of students as perceived by teachers based on subject area?
Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses have been formulated to guide the research study.
1.    There is no significant difference in the perception of teachers on child abuse on the academic performance of students based on gender
2.    There is no significant difference in the perception of teachers on child abuse on the academic performance of students based on religion.
3.    There is no significant difference in the perception of teachers on child abuse on academic performance of students based on teaching experience.
4.    There is no significant difference in the perception of teachers on child abuse on academic performance of students based on subject taught.