CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Historically, the industrial revolution that started in Europe and spread to  the rest of the world led to urbanization. It started in England and was an era where machines replace work done by humans. Industrialization was a wind of change that was blowing from Europe to the whole world, although it took time before reaching other continents.

The clustering of industries is a force of attraction to the population for services needed by such industries and hence urbanization. In Africa, before the pre-colonial and colonial era, the concept of urbanisation was not so significant since it was slow but since independence, the growth rates of many towns have greatly increased. Many African countries including Cameroon have witnessed the growth of urban towns from the 1960s after their independence.

This was vivid when the Europeans found that Africa has raw materials that could feed their industries in Europe and this led to “scramble for Africa” and later colonization to maintain constant flow of the raw materials. Thus, Africans received the establishment of primary industries that have led to urbanization. Increased mechanisation of agriculture in rural areas has led to rural unemployment which has caused rural-urban migration of the population (Rees and Smith, 1988).

The increase population in urban towns has been rapid since the start of the 20th century, but by 1990, only about 10% of the world‟s population reside in urban towns. According to Estelle and Buchana (1974), Urbanisation is closely tied to modernisation, industrialisation, and the sociological process on rationalisation. In some cases, urbanisation is considered in terms of the population distribution (United Nations Statistics, 2006).

Human beings have become an increasingly powerful environmental force over the last century. With the advent of agriculture, we began to change the land and with the industrial revolution, humans began to alter the atmosphere.  The  recent  increase  in  world‟s  population  has  magnified  the effects of our agricultural and economic activities, but the growth in world‟s population has blurred what may be an event more important human- environmental  interaction.

While  the  world‟s  population  is  doubling,  the world‟s urban population is tripling. With the next few years, more than half of the world‟s population may be residing in cities. Widespread urbanisation is  a  recent  phenomenon  in  the  world.  In  1900,  just  15%  of  the  world‟s population reside in cities, but the 20th century transformed this trend which was underpinned by the pace of rapid urban population growth in the 1950s and sixty years later, it was estimated that half of the worlds‟ population live in cities. Despite this rapid change, urbanisation is never out of control in terms of population growth rates, but the worst is over urban population growth rates.

According to the National Research Council (2003), urban population growth rates peaked at 3.7% in 1950-1974 and slowed down in the preceding years. It is estimated that the global urban population would have increased from not less than 1 billion in 1950 to roughly 6 billion by 2050, and to around 9 billion by 2100, corresponding to close to 85% of the projected total population. Nevertheless, given the growing base of people living in cities, annual population increments in absolute numbers are very large and to many alarming, United Nations projections predict that urban population in developing countries may go more than 65 million people a year between 2000 and 2030 (United Nations statistic, 2006). Urbanisation has long been viewed with ambivalence. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin in Rush, “I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. They nourish some of elegant arts, but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere” as cited by Peterson (1984).

Urbanisation is characterised by congestion, pollution, high crime wave, inadequate space, congested activities- some of which one can appreciate for human living and some which make the towns very uncomfortable for human  living.    Clustering  of  secondary  schools,  clustering  of  students‟ houses, availability of drinking spots around schools and the presence of ghettoes can also affect students‟ behaviour. All these characteristics of an urban town can exert both negative and positive effects on the behaviour of secondary school students.

Urban activities may positively or negatively shape the behaviour of students both at home and in school. As one may claim that urbanisation has advantages  over  students‟  behaviour  and  performance  in  school,  it  also carries with it some activities that may greatly distract students and change their patterns of behaviour negatively. Urbanization is significantly indicated by its urban activities which are social, economic and political.

Social activities involve cultural festivals, sporting activities, schooling activities, night club activities, drinking, watching of films, cinemas, drug consumption, and many others. Economic activities involve transportation, business activities and construction of houses. This study examines the effects of social and economic activities on students‟ behaviour leaving out political activities because secondary school students in Cameroon are not involved in politics. Any effect of these activities encountered by a student may greatly depends on personal or group participation in such activities of urban towns. Also, any activity a student found him or herself involved depends on the parenting style the parents practice at home. It is believed

 

that a parent who drinks and get drunk may bring up children who may also drink and get drunk, and consequently misbehave in the society. Peterson et al., (1989) in support hold that the most important social model for a child are his or her parents.

Family economic pursuit is another aspect in urban cities that can contribute to  students‟  behaviour.  How  a  family  manages  to  raise  income  for  the education of the children matters. Life in cities is usually very difficult and families can use any means to survive. In cities some families survive through the sale of drugs, others do legal businesses, and many work in offices and companies. Therefore, a child who lives and sees the family surviving well through the sale of drugs may pick up this means of survival from the parents. These children may end up in life as drug consumers.

Thus, they may behave poorly in school and in the society as a whole. Behaviour problems in children typically emerge first in the family context. Because all behaviours are learnt, and that the environment can change learners‟   behaviour   (Bandura,   1973),   a   family   economic   pursuit   may negatively or positively affect the behaviour of students in urban cities. For example, a female child put to provide services in a hotel or a bar where adults come for their privacy can equally motivate the child to model or copy such behaviours. Sometimes parents while in urban centres would want to engage their children in any economic activity that can generate incomes for the family.

Studies have proven that family economic background has a strong correlation with the behaviour of children. According to the College Board (2011), children from poor homes are more likely to encounter serious behavioural problems compared with those from rich homes.

Statement of Problem

The  issue  of  students‟  behaviour  remains  a  major  problem  pervading  the educational system in Cameroon. This makes the control of students especially in urban secondary schools very difficult. There have been several complaints from teachers, parents and other stakeholders in education about deviant behaviours from students especially those in urban towns.

Such behaviours include fighting, loitering, molestation of fellow students, drug and alcohol consumption, gaming activities that lead to violence, aggressive behaviour, sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancies, scamming, and so on. Despite the Education law of 1998 which prohibits violence and consumption of drug as well as location of bars around school premises, these situations seem to be aggravating in our school milieu especially in urban schools. The numerous cases of violence noticed in urban secondary schools in Cameroon from 2016 to 2022 has been alarming and put a doubtful impression in the mind of this researcher. Urban students are most of the time seen involved in many activities in addition to school activities.

These students come from different families which differ in their economic pursuit, some have peer groups that are made up of students from different cultural backgrounds with different behaviours and some live-in different parts of the city with different social organisation of the town.

In this way, the researcher wants to examine whether urban activity, family economic pursuit, composition of peer groups, and social structure of urban towns  have any effect on students‟ behaviour in urban secondary schools. With this state of doubt in mind, this study sets to investigate the effects of urbanisation   on   students‟   behaviour   in   secondary   schools   in   Buea municipality, Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon.

Main Objective of the study

To find out the effects of urbanisation on students‟ behaviour in secondary schools in Cameroon with Buea municipality as case study

Specific Objectives of the study

1. To find  out  the  effects  of  urban  activity  on  students‟  behaviour  in secondary schools.
2. To find  out  the  effects  of  urban  family  economic  pursuit  on  students‟ behaviour in secondary schools.
3. To determine the effects of the composition of peer groups in urban centres on students‟ behaviour in secondary schools.
4. To investigate the effects of the social structure of the urban environment on students‟ behaviour in secondary schools.

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