Indiscipline may be said to be as old as the time when men started to organize himself into society and consequently made laws to order the affairs of men in a social set up. In the Holy Scriptures, Cain exhibited some form of indiscipline when he out of envy murdered his brother Abel in their Abode. “Indiscipline” is not an issue that has not been known by all, as people in one way or the other have been involved with indiscipline behaviour on daily basis. Many students today especially those in secondary schools exhibit some forms of indiscipline ranging from stealing, murder, cheating etc. These acts involve both adults and youths, the rate of indiscipline is quite alarming in the modern world.

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Indiscipline may be seen as a form of deviating from the set rules guiding behavioral conduct i.e an individual doing or engaging in activities in a wrong way and thereby neglecting the rules and regulations. For instance, there is a rule which says “All pedestrians should not cross the express way rather should cross-over by climbing the over-head bridge”.

The above rule is as clear as crystal and if anyone contradicts the rule, the person will be termed as “undisciplined”. The Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines “indiscipline” as lack of control in the behaviour of a group of people. In other words, it is the ability of an individual to live contrarily with rules.

Most schools in the past were voluntary agency schools. As at then, there was harmony as principals, teachers shared the same view of students desirable behaviours. The quality of school system as regards to discipline was very high up till the end of Nigerian civil war in January 1970. Some of the indiscipline acts that began to manifest after the civil war include; bullying, exam malpractice, cultist activities, truancy etc. (Source from: This Day Newspaper page 26, 13th of February 2002).

Zubaida (2009) identifies various forms of indiscipline among the secondary schools students such as truancy, lateness to school, cultism, drug abuse, insulting/assaulting, stealing, rioting and many other anti-social vices. According to Zubaida (2009) and Eyinade (1999), a number of these acts of indiscipline were directed against constituted authorities and established rules. An example of this is refusal to wear the right school uniform and going out of bounds without permission. The respect which teachers command among students had been seriously worn-off. And some teachers have not done much to help the situation by their actions. This problem has turned to a national issue.

Our leaders in the past have tried to remedy this situation but the problem proved not to be solved. One of the cardinal objectives of education as spelt out in the National policy on education (2004) revised, is to inculcate right type of values and attitudes to education, parental factors and teacher attitude. Therefore, there is need to get at the root of causes of indiscipline among students with a view of finding a solution. In this light the researchers concern is to find out factors responsible for indiscipline among secondary school students with a view to provide solutions in order to make our educational system what it ought to be.

In any civilized society, the fostering of discipline is a necessary condition on the maintenance of law and order. It is a pre-requisite for the promotion of political, social and economic development of a society or nation achieves is to a large extent a function by its various organs and what they are able to inculcate on the youth is very essential in order to ensure loyalty of the citizens and to the social and economic development of the country. The national policy of education (1981) stated the purpose of education as follows: “To create a good society where all its members can use their disposal to develop all the natural resources within the environment in pursuit of the self goal and objective?” there have been a considerable exhibition of indiscipline in school of which a lot of bad behaviour such as gambling, smoking, drunkenness, stealing, bribery, corruption and drug addiction flourished. In fact, it was in realization of these problems that led to the launching of the ethnical war against (W.A.I.) by the Buhari military regime in 1984.