RURAL AND URBAN DISPARITIES IN STUDENTS-TEACHERS VIOLENCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

School based violence is important because of the increasing prevalence of various forms of violence directed to teachers by the students. The association of teachers perpetration of violence to students has been explored, but there is dearth in the studies that explore students perpetration of violence to teachers in Africa, most especially in Nigeria. Violence against teachers may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, job dissatisfaction and unsafe teaching environment. Hence, the need to explore the study. The objectives of the study is to determine the prevalence of students to teachers’ violence in public secondary schools in Ibadan and to investigate the determinants of violence. A cross sectional study was conducted using a facilitated self-administered questionnaires, adapted from WHO workplace violence in the Health sector. Forty public secondary schools in Ibadan were selected. A total of 400 respondents (200 each) from rural and urban schools were selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Questions on experience of violence in the past 12 months were asked from the respondents. The main outcome variables are prevalence and factors affecting experience of psychological, sexual and physical violence. Psychological violence includes verbal abuse, threats, mobbing, shouting, among others. Sexual violence includes verbal sexual comment, unwanted sexual touching, offensive jokes and gestures, among others. Physical violence includes beating, kicking, slapping, stabling, pushing, among others. Statistical analysis of the data was done using frequency counts, means, standard deviation bar charts, percentages, chi square and logistic regression, using SPSS version 20. Of the 400 respondents selected, their mean age was 42.6±9.0years, 62% were above 40years, 82.9% were married, 53.8% were females and 43.6% had bachelor’s degree in education. The types of violence experienced were physical (7.8%), sexual (12.0%) and psychological (31%). Males (11.9%; P=0.004) reported higher physical violence while females (15.8%; P=0.004) reported higher sexual violence. Respondents from rural schools experienced higher prevalence of all the three forms of violence. The determinants of physical violence were Males (OR=2.92, 95% CI 1.20-7.11), Income of #18,000-#50,000 (OR=4.68, 95% CI: 1.33-16.54), Female (OR=0.25, 95% CI: 0.11-0.58) for sexual and income of #18,000 and #50,000 (OR=4.41, 95% CI: 2.08-9.35) for psychological violence. All forms of violence were experienced by teachers with prevalence higher among males than females except for sexual violence. Additionally, teachers working in the rural schools experienced a higher prevalence in all the three types of violence than urban teachers. Policies must be implemented to carter for gender and residential disparities (rural and urban) for optimum violence prevention programs.