Students’ and Teachers’ Perspectives on the Child’s Rights Act in a Southwestern Nigerian City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15698766Keywords:
Child's Rights, Students, Teachers, Schools, NigeriaAbstract
The Child’s Rights Act (CRA) is a fundamental legal framework safeguarding the rights and welfare of children. Promoting children's rights is essential to ensure their well-being and protection. The CRA is an established law in Nigeria, but its practice and incorporation in schools are almost non-existent. This study investigated students’ and teachers’ perspectives of the Child’s Rights Act in a Southwestern Nigerian city. It explicitly focused on the knowledge, perceptions, and factors influencing its implementation. Five (5) secondary schools and three hundred fifty-nine (359) students were selected randomly through a stratified random sampling technique. Ten (10) teachers were purposively selected from these schools as participants for the Key Informant Interviews (KII). A cross-sectional study design, a convergent parallel, and mixed methods design were used for data collection. The average age of respondents for the quantitative study was 15.3±1.5 years. The mean knowledge and perception scores were 8.8±2.3 and 69.3±9.2, respectively. Logistic regression results showed that age had a statistically significant effect on knowledge, and religion and ethnicity significantly impacted the perception of the CRA. Qualitative data revealed that most respondents perceive CRA positively. The study has shown gaps in students' and teachers' knowledge of the CRA and the implication is to eliminate the impediments in implementing the act. This highlights the urgent need to integrate comprehensive education on CRA and training for teachers and inclusive practice policies in schools.
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