Causes And Effects of Over Population in Public Primary Schools in Potiskum, Yobe State, Nigeria
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Abstract
Government at different levels and times have continued to reiterate its commitment in the provision of free and compulsory basic education, but it has severally been reported that Nigeria has over 10 million out-of-school children, yet the population of pupils in our public primary schools is so outrageous, so much that we are having over 200 pupils in a class. This paper aims to find out the causes of the overpopulation in the public primary schools, which mostly cantered around the inability of the Government to provide the required facilities to carter for the ever-growing population of citizens in a particular geographical area. The paper also look at the consequential effect of the overpopulation in schools on the standard of education, which mostly revolves around fallen standard of education and apathy on the side of the teachers. The population of study included some selected public primary schools within Potiskum town in Yobe State, Nigeria. Secondary data were sourced from Potiskum Local Government Education Authority, journals, conference/seminar papers, newspapers, textbooks etc. Equally, primary data for the study were obtained through survey of the selected primary schools to ascertain the level of the overpopulation, and through interview conducted on some selected teachers to verify the effect of the overpopulation. Some recommendations suggested include the need for government to urgently establish more schools within the urban areas to carter for the growing population and government should also plan strict rules and policies regarding optimum population in classrooms and provide sufficient budget to education department for providing better facilities in schools.