By
Gabriel O. Olaniyan
The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, OgbomosoFaculty of Education Department of Administration and Leadership
Introduction
This research seeks to find out whether the professions and academic status of the parents of senior secondary school students in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, have a relationship with their creative capabilities. In this study, innovation is synonymous with creativity and used interchangeably. Motivation for the study is the researcher’s observation and readings about how young people of the secondary school age bracket (12-21years) engage in antisocial behaviours (vices) with increasing sophistication. More worrisome is when victims of the vices had to bear losses in materials, finances, and emotional balance not due to their carelessness. Furthermore, different arms of the national security agencies have to be on regular updates of strategies to arrest the situation which unfortunately have recorded minimal successes. The vices referred to include internet fraud, abortions, examination malpractice, cultism, ritual killings, armed robbery and violence of all sorts. News media in Nigeria are replete with report of such vices. The current situation indicates evident erosion of African traditional values of hard work, respect for elders and constituted authorities (Olaniyan, 2015: 14). These are replaced with individualism, pursuit for pleasure with less concern for the consequences which their actions may generate. Adapting Mangal’s (2013:335) theory that creativity is a natural endowment that requires stimulation, nourishment, proper training and opportunities for expressions to avoid waste; this study holds that parents have the primary task of stimulating, training and nourishing their children in attempts to develop their creative endowments. Using the descriptive approach to research and descriptive statistics, three questions were raised to guide the study. (a). Is there a connection or association between the profession and academic status of parents of senior secondary school students and their creative abilities in Ogbomoso town? (b) Which areas do senior secondary school students in Ogbomoso town best demonstrate creative skills? (c). How could students be assisted to direct their creative abilities into positive use? The study aims to assist teachers, parents, stakeholders in education and government through providing an outcome useful as guide to put in place proactive measures for helping students use their creative capabilities for the development of society rather than selfish and destructive purposes. The study proceeds with highlights on procedures for the study.
