THE LEVEL OF CHILD-FRIENDLINESS IN SUDLON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

An Undergraduate Thesis

Presented to the Faculty of College of Education

Bucas Grande Foundation College

In Partial Fulfillment

Of The Requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Elementary Education

Enago, Norlyn P.

Yamson, Danica

March 2017
 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Introduction

Schools are educational institutions that aimed to develop students through the acquisition of
affections, knowledge, and skills so that they can live anywhere. Learning in the classroom is designed as
good as possible, to create a harmonious relationship between fellow students, students with their teachers
and including the environment. Schools are expected to be a place where students enjoy the convenience of
learning, even as a learning environment which upholds the self-esteem, dignity, and rights of children.
Children's rights are the basic needs to ensure the child's survival, growth and development, and also
protection from all forms of abuse, exploitation and children neglecting include civil, economic, social, and
cultural aspects. Generally, the rights of children are include the following civil rights and freedom, family
environment and alternative care, basic health and welfare, education, leisure and cultural activities, as well
as special protection. The law of No. 23/2002 on Child Protection asserts the rights of the child to have
optimal levels of health, education, protection and chance to participate. But in fact, current rights of the child
are inadequate, because schools often become violence implementation area for students. Violence in
schools is an issue that has become more prominent in recent years.
Smith and Sharp (2000) assessed that violence can be described as systematic abuse of power,
usually occurs in specific social groups such as schools, families, and communities. Power can be abused
and it really depends on the social context. Similarly, Swearer et al (2000) explained the current violence has
spread widely and problem that is sometimes ignored by numbers of schools. Violence can be interpreted as
angry behavior, hyperactivity, and acts of crime or other crimes, which can be done by the teacher to the
students, and by fellow students. One implication of violence is the emergence of student victims of violence.
Victims of violence can experience pain, low academic achievement, increased fear and anxiety, the loss of a
number of positive ideas, and depression. In fact, according Alsaraireh (2001) worst effects is the low
emotional intelligence and self-esteem.
In addition, Byoung-suk, K. (2012) stated that children need safe, healthy and stimulating environment
in which to grow and learn. During the school year, children can spend 6 to 8 hours at the school where the
environment plays a significant/critical role in child development. More of the time is spent in the school yard
or travelling to and from school. This condition requires careful planning and designing to optimize
experiences that support education, health and stewardship. Therefore, the school environment is of
paramount importance in shaping and reshaping intellectual ability. However, supportive and favorable school
environment enriched with enough learning facilities, and favorable climate makes students more comfortable,
more concentrated on their academic activities that resulted in high academic performance. The forces of the
environment begin to influence growth and development of the individual right from the womb of his mother.
The educational process of development occurs in physical, social, cultural and psychological environment. A
proper and adequate environment is very much necessary for a fruitful learning of the child. The favorable
school environment provides the necessary stimulus for learning experiences. The children spend most of
their time in school, and this school environment is exerting influence on performance through curricular,
teaching technique and relationship (Arul Lawrence A.S. 2012).

Research indicated that the achievement gap widens each year between students with most effective
teachers and those with less effective teachers. It suggests that the most significant gains in student
achievement will likely be realized when students receive instruction from good teachers over consecutive
years. Poor and minority students are the least likely group to be taught by teachers with experience,
knowledge and credentials. The elements of teacher quality that the researcher demonstrates are strongly
associated with high students achievement. Research also showed that these students produce most gains
when assigned to competent teachers. Indeed, this finding leads to many researchers and analysts to assert
that the lack of good teachers is the major contributor to the achievement gap. The best strategy for closing
achievement gaps is to make sure that a school serving poor and minority students have their fair share of
qualified teachers.
Chowdhury and Choudhury (2002) explained that a child-friendly school is a school that is acceptable
to the learners and possesses all the necessities that could assist learners to adjust into the school setting.
According to Chowdhury and colleague, a school that has an environment that makes teaching and learning
pleasant and appealing to the child and reduces tension and anxiety is a child-friendly school. This may then
suggest that a school that is carefully planned in terms of physical set up, site and surroundings and that
which has a well-planned curriculum and caring personnel may be regarded as a child-friendly school.

The physical environment is also always considered to have to effects on the behavior and moral
development of people, children and adults who function within it. This may be because a school environment
encompasses psychosocial and physical dimensions which exercise reciprocal effects on each other. In fact,
research evidence provided by Boekaerts ( 2003) indicates that a supportive academic setting is considered
by children as an extension of their personal resources and that which serves to reduce anxiety and negative
effects that can arise. Unfortunately, the standard appears to be compromised (Adio, 2010); and this may be
because many people including those without background in early childhood education and those who knew
nothing about education appear to be finding their ways into the system - a development that suggests an
adverse effect on the sector. There has also been an emerging era of proliferation of substandard schools
across the country. Today, one finds many schools in room and parlour apartments; and one may begin to
wonder whether or not government is aware of the existence of these schools in the first place and the fear
that education sector has become a free for all enterprise. Without much gainsaying, this may have its
adverse consequences on the quality of children that are produced from such schools.
In general, the concept of child-friendliness is amorphous and it calls for a review. It may denote the
acceptability and adjustment of children into school setting, and that which not only provides children with
quality education, but also with an environment that is fun, healthy and engaging a place where they can
play, be protected from harm, express their views and actively participate in the learning process (Tovika,
Kabekabe & Buia, 2004). The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF, 2006: 1) explained that a school that
is child-friendly provides children with opportunities to enjoy their fundamental rights. According to UNICEF, a
Child-friendly School (CFS) provides a means of transporting the concepts of Child Right into classroom
practice and school management and its framework is made up of proactive inclusiveness; academic
effectiveness and relevance; health, safety and protectiveness; gender responsiveness; active engagement;
and participatory inability, which are necessary and mutually reinforcing the conditions of success of a child-
friendly school.

Due to the collated facts as cited by different authors above, the researchers formulated awareness in

studying the level of child-friendliness to the learning performance of the grade 6 pupils of Socorro National

High School. The achievement of this study assures that by the end of this research, the concept of child-

friendly school will contribute to the learning performance of the learners.

Review of Related Literature

One of the factors that influence academic performance is school location/site of the
school. This is so because in a situation whereby the school is sited in a noisy area will disrupt
the activities on the teaching/learning process of the students. One will not expect such students
in this area to be doing well academically. Onukwo (2004) in his note says that a conducive
environment enhances a child's growth and development. Children feel happy in a peaceful and
friendly environment where as schools sited in noisy urban streets are associated with deficits in
mental concentration leading to students poor performance. Noise is anything that interferes
with teaching/learning process. Noise produces influence on children's information processing
strategies, feelings of personal control as well as their level of arousal.
Economic, motivational and emotion are also other factors that influence academic
performance of students (Franser 2002). These hamper the child's intellectual development
considerably as such treatments invariably result in negative self-concept. Also culture
influences student's academic performance. The cultural environment influences aspiration
because culturally based explanations of behavior tend to focus on the moral codes that operate
within particular families, communities or groups. As culture has to do with beliefs values, norms
and socializations, research evidence have shown that the environment whether urban or rural
industrial also contributes to what a child learns and how it is being learned. Some communities
have a history/tradition of formal education and modern education influences. The gadgets,
resources, facilities in both types of community will influence the learning processes of the child.
Student's cannot single handedly achieve all their goals. So they must be equipped with
adequate technological facilities such as textbooks, clients, computer, visual and audio-visual
aids, photographs and posters.
One of the most critical physical characteristics of classroom is lighting (Philips 2006).
The importance of inappropriate visual environment for learning task deserves careful
consideration. The visual environment affects a learner's ability to perceive visual stimuli and
affects his/her mental attitude and thus, performance. Dunn (2005) insisted that the lighting of a
school should be considered on active element of the total educational environment. He found
that good lighting contributes significantly to the aesthetics and psychological character of the
teaching space; students perform well than in a dark classroom. Harton's (2006) suggest that
the ability of individuals in school to concentrate on instructions was strongly influenced by
factors such as lighting. Classroom lighting plays a particularly critical role because of the direct
relationship between good lighting and students performance. Students cannot study unless
lighting is adequate. The effectiveness of information collection is reduce in bad light seeing in
bad light can lead to the development of ineffective programming of the information collection
process which may become habitual. Bad light leads to discomfort and poor academic
performance. Color choice can also impact the teaching-learning process.
Physical structure of a school building and the interactions between students and
teachers, are two main diverse factors that both affect and help to define the broad concept of
school climate. School climate has been researched for many years and continued to be
examined and redefined as a result of its significant influences on educational outcomes.
Clearly, school climates is multidimensional and influences many individuals, including students,
parents school personnel, and the community. Additionally, school climates can be of positive
influence on the health of the learning environments as Freiberg (1998: P. 22-26) notes "school
climate can be a positive influence on the health of the learning environment or a significant
barrier to learning. School environment can affect many areas and people within schools. For
example, a positive school climate has been associated with fewer behavioral and emotional
problems for students.
Furthermore, school climate can play a significant role in improving a healthy and
positive school atmosphere, Freibery (2008:22) notes "the interaction of various school and
classroom climate factors can create a fabric of support that enables all members of the school
community to teach and learn at optimum levels". A positive school climate can yield positive
educational and psychological outcome for students and school personnel. Similarly, a negative
climate can prevent optimal learning and development. (Freibery, 1998: Johnson and Johnson,
1993, 1997; Kuperminc et al, Kuperminc Leaderbeater and Blatt, 2001; manning and
Saddlemire, 1996). School climate including "trust respect, mutual obligation and concern for
others welfare can have powerful- effect on educational relationships as well as learners"
academic achievement and overall school progress.
Motivating students to achieve set goals in school is of great concern to teachers,
parents and researchers. A child's first educational experiences are centered in the homes; his
ideas, attitude and general pattern of behavior are as a result of his childhood rearing. The
variation in the academic attainments of students could be related directly to differences in the
home and its influence. Evans as cited in Egwuche (2000) noted that family size to a large
extend determines the relative amount of physical attention and time which each child gets from
his parents. Too many children in the home entails less amount of attention in terms of time
available for each child. It is also possible that family size effects the level of intellectual quantity
that the child brings into the classroom. Evidence from several studies suggest that a measure
of intellectual quantity varies directly with the size of the family and that correlation cuts across
social class line
In addition, technology is of significant importance to the academic achievement of
students. But instead of achieving academically, students turned to be cheating instrument.
Most researchers concur that the incidence of academic misconduct in our middle schools and
high school has increased significantly in recent years (Underwood and Szaba, 2003). Although
educators and academics disagree on the root causes of this alarming behaviour. There is little
disagreement that the accessibility of computers, the internet, and other electronic resources
such as CD-ROM encyclopedias has made cheating quicker and easier for our current
generation of Technology-Savvy teen. Cyber cheating" (meaning the use of technology tools in
inappropriate ways for academic work. Because of this cheatings on students, Futton (1997)
persuasively argue that schools must change traditional approaches to learning in order to help
today's students acquire the skill set required for succeeding in the work place of the future.
These advanced skill will be achieved "through the learner's interactions with the
content" "in the digital ages" and not through "the transmission of facts" (Futton 1997).
Therefore assessment tools should be designed in a way that knowledge and information are
used in the adult world.
According to Eric, S. (2005) in an article the role of the supportive school environment in
promoting academic success postulates that the school environment has broad influence on
students learning and growth, including a significant aspect of their social, emotional and ethical
development. When students find their school environment supportive and caring, they are less
likely to become involved in substance abuse, violence and other problem behavior. The
research indicated that supportive schools foster these positive outcomes by promoting
students sense of connectedness, belongingness or community. These terms are used
interchangeably here to refer to students sense of being in a close, respectful relationship with
peers and adult at school. Therefore, building in a school community is a means of fostering
academic success. Students who experience their school as a caring community become more
motivated, ambiguous and engage in their learning. In particular, students active connection
with teachers and their perceptions that teachers care about them are what stimulate their effort
and engagement.
Denial, K.K. Felix, K. (2014) examined the impact of the school environment and peer
influence on the students academic performance. The study assessed school environment
factors and peer influence in term of the level of psychological impact they have on learners.
The school as an institution of learning which also act as a second home for learners has been
found to have a strong relationship with students academic performance. Therefore, the head
teacher and the teachers should provide a favorable learning environment where students are
free to consult them when in need. They should also provide adequate education facilities that
can arouse interest in the students and to motivate them to work hard. It is believed that a
cordial relationship between the head teacher and students create an environment favorable to
learning as discussions encouraged, and learners are listened. The head teacher works
together with students on how to succeed in life and academic work. In such a school, every
member is important in the decision-making process, and students are usually disciplined and
possess positive academic attitude. The important role of the teacher in the learning process is
unquestionable. Teachers have a lot of influence on their classroom practices. Teachers should
have and apply specific abilities without which their influence may not be reflected in their
students performance in their subject.
According to Amiruddin (2011), violence that might exist among children include physical
violence and psychological violence; they aimed at torturing or mistreating others. In contrast to
physical violence, psychological violence is an act aimed at degrading the image or confidence
of a person, either through words or through actions that are not preferred or desired by the
victim. Violence and harassment in education, whether done consciously or not, is like planting
a time-bomb that can explode at any time. The younger generation who is accustomed to
violence and harassment will grow into individuals who are looking at everything from the point
of view of violence as well. There are possibilities that violence becomes a life style;
incorporating violence into activities every day, especially in solving problems. This is what
happened recently in Indonesia. Slightest harassment or excessive punishments are
contributing to sow seeds of violence among the young generation. Therefore, the actions that
are inconsistent with the purpose of education should be as soon as possible terminated so that
a vicious cycle plagued into the world of education can be immediately disconnected. Violence
is an act that is not commendable and certainly contrary to the foundation of education.
Violence in education arises from the breach accompanied by particularly physical punishment,
due to poor education systems and policies, since the curriculum is focused more on the
achievement of the cognitive aspects and ignore education with affective and psychomotor
abilities. In addition, these conditions also influenced the development of a society that has
shifted rapidly, giving rise to an attitude of instant solutions, violence is influenced by socio-
economic background of the perpetrator. In relation to it, the violence in education can be
caused by either internal or external factors. Internal factors directly affect the behavior of the
students and of the teachers. There is a gap between what the government has done in
promoting education and the real conditions. On the other hand, the external factors which
come from the condition of non-education take a role as an indirect factor leading to potential
violence. Wijayanto (2003) describes some of the mechanisms of violence in education as
follow: 1) The disposition of the student as a blank sheet of paper (blank paper), 2) student test
scores as a determinant of everything, and 3) physical uniformity. Students as blank papers are
ready to be filled with text or color as much as possible or they might be regarded as empty
vessels to be poured by the water until it is full. Writing, painting, color, and water is a picture of
knowledge, systematic science, formulation of concepts, theories, and certain skills as a
preparation for students to continue their education to a higher level or to enter the workforce.
. Academic achievement of a student is always associated with the many components of
learning environment. According to Bosque and Dore (2002), learning and teaching environment
ought to implement six functions: inform, communicate, collaborate, produce, scaffold, and
manage. They added that conceptually speaking, the learning environment refers to the whole
range of components and activities within which learning happens.
Based on the Sandbergs (2001), the definition on the functions of a learning
environment can be quoted as Teacher components role is to provide something between
loose guidance and direct instruction. It can be a human agent (present or distant), an intelligent
agent, and instructions like some text books provide. This component provides information from
the syllabus to the task level Student's motivation for learning is also generally regarded as on
of the most critical determinants, which contribute to the success and quality of any learning
outcome (Mitchell, 1992). Research shows that students perceptions of academic competency
decline as they advance in school (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998). Schunk and Pajares
(2002) attribute this decline to various factors, including greater competition, less teacher
attention to individual student progress, and stresses associated with school transitions. Another
important determinant, which shouldnt be neglected, is the family. Family is the primary social
system for children for all cultures across the region. Rollins and Thomas (2001) found that high
parental control were associated with high achievement. Religiosity as an aspect of the family
environment is another independent variable possibly influencing academic achievement (Bahr,
Hawks, & Wang, 1993). Cassidy and Lynn (1991) explored how family environment impacts
motivation and achievement. This means that motivation served as a mediating variable
between home background, personal characteristics, and educational attainment. Higher-
achieving students are likely to have the following characteristics: positive feelings about their
school experiences; attribute their success in high school to such things as hard work, self-
discipline, organization, ability, and high motivation; tend to watch relatively little television A
study by Niebuhr (1995) examined relationships between several variables and student
academic achievement. His findings suggest that the elements of both school climate have a
stronger direct effect on academic performance. Academic performance is typically assessed by
the use of teacher ratings, tests, and exams (Howse, 1999). Students were usually more
motivated by teachers who cared about student learning and showed enthusiasm.
Therefore, this paper is designed specifically to study the level of child
friendliness in Sudlon elementary school on what are the school related factors that contribute
on their academic achievement.

Statement of the problem

This research aims to determine the level of friendliness to the grade 6 pupils of Sudlon
elementary school.
The study will answer the following questions;
1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:
1.1 age
1.2 sex
2. What is the level of the schools child-friendliness in terms of:
2.1 school climate
2.2 educational resources adequacy
2.3 Motivational
2.4 Violence
3. What is the academic performance of the students in terms of;
1.1 Students GPA
4. Is there significant relationship between the child-friendliness towards the academic
performance of the pupils?
5. based on the findings, what intervention may be proposed?
Hypothesis
At 0.05 level of significance it is hypothesized that:

Ho- there is no significant relationship between child-friendly schools to the academic

performance of the pupils

Significance of the study

Ministry of Education and policy makers- to establish areas that have knowledge and skill
gap. It will help the policy makers in human resource planning, allocation and disbursement of
funds to public primary schools in the country.
Future researchers they will apply the recommendations of this study in adding new
knowledge in the area of study area.

Scope and Limitation

The study focused in Sudlon elementary School. This study will be undertaken to better
understand the influence of child-friendly school to academic performance of Sudlon elementary
school. The participants of the study will be the grade 6 pupils. This will be conducted by the
researchers during the school year 2017-2018.

Conceptual/theoritical Framework

The concept of the study revolves around the principles form various authors who
believed that school according to Chowdhury and colleague, a school that has an environment
that makes teaching and learning pleasant and appealing to the child and reduces tension and
anxiety is a child-friendly school. Several researchers have identified factors that contribute to
quality of education in schools. These factors are classified under; school based factors and non
school factors that are external not within school control. Internal factors are factors within
school control. For instance factors such as instructional management and teacher training have
been cited as school based factors (Digolo, 2003; Eshiwani, 1993). Studies done on the impact
of school environment and students academic attainment attest to the fact that there is
significant relationship between school based factors and students performance (Mayama,
2012; Lumuli, 2009).
The framework of the study is illustrated in the schematic diagram of the study,

Figure 1. The profile of the respondents will be determined in terms of age, sex, and GPA of the

respondents.

The second box reflects the factors that influence the child-friendliness in Sudlon

elementary school. This child friendly school factors will give sufficient information about its
 contribution to the learning performance of the respondents of which the third box of the

framework wants to attain.

Profile of the
respondents:
Factors affecting
age Child friendly school : Academic
sex Physical
performa
GPA environment
nce of
educational
the
resources
pupils
adequacy
emotional

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of the Study

 Chapter II
METHOD

Research Design

This study will use a descriptive survey research design. In using this design, data
collection is carried out in a structured process. Kumar (2005) argues that the goal of descriptive
research is to describe the characteristics of a selected phenomenon and involves the collection
of data without manipulation of variables. The sole purpose of descriptive research is to provide
an accurate and valid representation of the factors or variables that pertain are relevant to the
research question. Descriptive survey research is helpful in indicating trends in attitudes and
behaviors, and enables generalization of the findings of the research study to be done
(Neuman, 2000). This design was appropriate for this study because it will enhance the amount
of quality information yielded.

Respondents and Sampling Design

This study used purposive sampling to the grade six pupils and teachers as well as
head teachers in Sudlon elementary school. The researcher used a random selection technique
which was aimed at getting a good representation of the population.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researcher will first sought for a permit from the head teacher in Sudlon

elementary school. Upon the approval, the researchers will personally gather the respondents

current grade points average (GPAs) and will conduct their questioners to the teachers and the

students. After the collection of the data, the researchers will tabulate, analyze, and interpret the

data for evaluation.

Statistical Analysis

With the hypothesis being advanced, the following statistical treatments will be

employed:

Frequency and Percentage Count. These tools will be used to determine the participants

profile

Mean and Standard Deviation. These tools will be used to determine the perceived effect of

child friendly school factors to the academic performance of the pupils.