INTRODUCTION 1.

0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Poverty is a relative term, and different individuals have different ideas about what constitutes poverty. What some would consider poverty might be considered by others to be a comfortable lifestyle. Garbarino (1992) explained that poverty means that children are at risk. If families are homeless, without food, and without basic health care, children are in jeopardy. While all poverty is an outrage and a waste of human potential, childhood poverty is a particularly serious problem for several reasons including these: Childhood is a one- off window of opportunity and development. Children are one of the most powerless groups in all societies and the physical and emotional costs of poverty are passed on to them. Poverty is increasingly concentrated among families with children in many parts of the world. Today's poor children are all too often tomorrow's poor parents (Garbarino, 1992).

Poverty, which forms a specific culture and way of life, is a growing issue in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The number of people living in the Upper East Region of Ghana in poverty is ever growing. Poverty indicates the extent to which an individual does without resources. These resources may include financial, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. Poverty directly affects academic performance due to lack of these resources which are not available for student success. Academic performance refers to the progress or the retardation of a student at school. Quite a number of factors contribute towards the academic performance of the student, e.g. positive attitude shown by parents, self-motivation of learners, attitude of the leaner, home background, the school itself etc.(Campbell, 1991). In Ghana precisely Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, the gaps in academic performance among poor and advantaged students are substantial. The positive correlation between education and development has also been amply validated worldwide. It has been established that poverty is the bedfellows of academic performance. In Ghana, this is clearly manifested in the Upper East Region where poverty is positively correlated with low academic performance. Good academic performance is the main objective of every academic institution worldwide since it is correlated with development, because the more students perform well in their

academics, the more competent the work-force of a country may be. Poverty on the other hand is a negating factor that has various effects to academic performance. The research in the Bolgatanga Municipality would answer the question, what are the effects of poverty to academic performance of students in Bolgatanga? The research will find the main problem surrounding this mystery and also give lasting solutions to this recurrent situation.

OBJECTIVE The main objective is to examine why poverty affect academic performance in Bolgatanga municipality and the way out RESEARCH QUESTION What effects can poverty have on academic performance? What are teachers' perceptions of the impact of poverty on academic performance among students? What are the teachers views of performances at school? What are the students' and parent general perceptions of their family backgrounds in relation to their school performance?

1.4

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study seeks to address the impact of poverty in the academic performance of students in the Bolgatanga municipality and suggesting possible recommendations to minimise its effect on students. 1.5 LIMITATIONS The study is been conducted in the Bolgatanga Municipality and so there would be problems such as:

Language barrier for most members in the Group. Financial challenge since we would travel from Sumbrungu to villages in Bolgatanga. There would be time consumed. Some lessons would be missed whiles getting out of campus during the research that we must undertake. Risk involve in gathering would be high.

2.0

LITERATURE REVIEW

This study will be a critical review of the literature that explores the effects of poverty on academic performance. Poverty strikes in both urban and rural areas in the Ghana, and poverty stricken students can be found living in all parts of the country. There is a definite negative impact that poverty plays on academic performance. This study would look at what it means to be poor and who is included within that definition. The risks of poverty are detailed as well as the importance of teachers views of their impoverished students. This study would found that out the interventions and ways to counteract the detrimental effects of poverty on academic success. Poverty is understood in many senses. The main understandings of the term include: Descriptions of material need, typically including the necessities of daily living, like food, shelter, and health care. Poverty in this sense may be understood as the deprivation of essential goods and services. Also it gives descriptions of social need, such as social exclusion, dependency, and the ability to participate in society. This would include education and information. Social exclusion is usually distinguished from poverty, as it encompasses political and moral issues, and is not restrained to the sphere of economics. Moreover it describes a lack of sufficient income and wealth. The meaning of "sufficient" varies widely across political and economic parts of the world.

According to the, Understanding Poverty in America (2006) report, it is stated that, although, most severe poverty is in the developing world, there is evidence of poverty in every region. In developed countries, this condition results in wandering homeless people and poor suburbs and ghettos. Poverty may be seen as the collective condition of poor people, or of poor groups, and in this sense entire nation- states are sometimes regarded as poor. To avoid stigma these nations are usually called developing nations. The, Understanding Poverty in America (2006) report, goes on to argue that, when measured, poverty may be absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body (approximately 2000-2500 kilocalories per day). The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$ (PPP) 1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It has been estimated that in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. The proportion of the developing world 's population living in extreme economic poverty has fallen from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.Much of the improvement has occurred in East and South Asia. Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context. In this case, then numbers of people counted as poor could increase, while their income rises. A relative measurement would be to compare the total wealth of the poorest one- third of the population with the total wealth of richest 1% of the population. There is several different income inequality metrics, one example is the Gini coefficient. In many developed countries the official definition of poverty used statistical purposes is based on relative income. As such many critics argue that poverty statistics, measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. For instance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 46% of those in "poverty" in the U.S. own their own home (with the average poor person's home having three bedrooms, with one and a half baths, and a garage).The U.S. poverty line is more arbitrary. It was created in 1963-64 and was based on the collar costs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "economy food plan" multiplied by factors of three. The multiplier was based on research showing that food costs then accounted for about one third of the total money income. This one-time calculation has been annually updated for inflation. Income inequality for the world as a whole may be diminishing.

Even if poverty may be lessening for the world as a whole, it continues to be an enormous problem. One third of deaths- some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day- are due to poverty related causes. That's 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. Every nearly 11 million children die before their fifth birthday. 1.1 Billion People had consumption levels below $2 a day 800 million people go to bed hungry every day.

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 3.0 INTRODUCTION This chapter basically consists of the methods and tools that were used in the collection of data that is research design, sample population, sample size, sampling technique, and data collection instrument, sources of data, and method of data analysis 3.1 Research Design. Based on the objective, the effect of poverty on academic performance, students and teachers will be consulted for data from the entire municipality. This will be done by the use of questionnaire ministering. 3.2 Sample population The research sample population includes students, teachers and parents in the Bolgatanga municipality. 3.3 Sample size and sampling technique. Due to time and financial constrain the sample size will be limited to 100 respondents. The sampling procedure that was under studied is the cluster samplings. Cluster sampling because the population is large and scattered over the whole municipality. After obtaining the required sample, a designed questionnaire will be used to collect the data so as to avoid ambiguity of questions in the questionnaires.

3.4 Data collection instrument The research was done by ministering questionnaire with the help of research assistants and this was done by self-ministering in order to ensure effective response and easy retrieval of the responded questionnaire. 3.5 Sources of data There are two main types of data source which includes the primary data and the secondary data but in the case of our research proposal, it will be limited to only secondary data source. 3.6 Pretesting of data collection instrument Before the questionnaire will be ministered to the respondents, we need to test it first for its validation and reliability. 3.7 Data analysis method The study would seek to use both quantitative and qualitative tools and some of this tool will be the use of table to analyze the data and interpret it appropriately for better understanding. Work Plan ACTIVITY DAY/WEEK DURATION

Time spent reading around 1 Week the topic Analyzing the information 3 weeks from the net Research in the library and 5 days other sources Compilation of all 1 week

2 hours each day

1 hour each day

1 hour everyday

30 minutes each day

information gathered Transferring the information 2 days into power point 1 hour each day

BUDGET DISCRIPTION Transportation Typing and printing Research on net Phone calls Final printing and binding Total AMOUNT(GH) 20.00 20.00 20.00 15.00 25.00 100.00