The Effect of Hate Speech on Secondary School Students’ Academic Performance in Umuahia North LGA, Abia State
Keywords:
Hate speech, Students, Teachers, Academic performance, UmuahiaAbstract
Research has shown that when learners are emotionally destabilized, its negative impact on learning experiences and achievement is inevitable. The use of hateful expressions by teachers and peers which targets the students’ disabilities, gender, ethnic backgrounds, and so on, is generating a stepwise entry into schools, consequently demotivating learning and affecting achievement. The thrust of this study therefore, is to first, examine copious hate expressions used by teachers and peers and their resultant effects on secondary school students’ emotions and academic performance. Secondly, to investigate the gender of teachers and peers that use hate speech more. Data for the study were generated through a questionnaire administered on one hundred and twenty randomly selected students as well as twenty teachers respectively. The participants were drawn from four public secondary schools in Umuahia North L.G.A., Abia State, Nigeria. The result indicates among other things, that hate expressions leave students with a feeling of low self-esteem, depression, loneliness, absenteeism, leading to poor academic performance as well as final drop out from school. The paper calls for strict measures against the use of incendiary statements on students by teachers and prohibition of hate language in our institutions of learning. In addition, negative peer group influence should be discouraged by education stakeholders.
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