stresses among secondary school students in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia state

 Chapter one 

introduction 

Background to the Study

Stress is defined as a state of psychological and physiological imbalance resulting from the disparity between situational demand and the individual's ability and motivation to meet those needs. Mosley, Megginson and  Pietri, (2016) defined stress as any external stimulus that cause wear and tear on one’s psychological and/or physical wellbeing. This means that stress is a body condition that occurs in response to actual or anticipated difficulties in life. Stress as such means pressure, tension or worry resulting from life events; and life event is anything that causes a person to deviate from normal functioning. Life events are part and parcel of living and so is stress, a condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from normal functioning.

In many secondary schools in Nigeria, most students are often stressed up with many issues like school related problems, domestic chores at home, poorly planned curriculum/syllabus, transportation through and fro from the school among others. According to Azubuike (2015), the nature of secondary education programme in Nigeria is the major cause of stress among students. These stresses according to the author is as a result of lack of infrastructures in few available schools in the country, lack of adequate classroom, poor transportation problem etc.

In most areas Nigeria, most schools are located at the out sketch of communities and towns. This makes it difficult for students to be punctual to school on daily bases. Location of schools is one of major causes stress among students. Most students trek for hours to school and back from school (Nwigbo, 2015). Apart from location and distant of school to the students in various communities in Nigeria, another major cause of stress among students in secondary schools is poor and nature curriculum/syllabus plan.

Curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. Also a syllabus is an academic document that communicates course information and defines expectations and responsibilities. It is descriptive (unlike the prescriptive or specific curriculum). A syllabus may be set out by an exam board or prepared by the professor who supervises or controls course quality. It may be provided in paper form or online. The cumbersome nature of syllabus and curriculum of secondary schools students constitute to students stress. Most schools in Nigeria as a whole and in Arochukwu Local government in particular always force students to offer up to fifteen subjects in the school. This often make students to jack of all trades and master of none, in the bid to cover all the subject stipulated. In the process of covering most students are stressed up

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