Abstract
The research explored the effects of parents’
socioeconomic status on the enrolment of Students into science classes. The
study used a modified ‘multiple worlds’ model to investigate how the economic
status influenced their science subject choice. All science Students constituted
the population from which a sample of one hundred and fifty students was drawn.
A questionnaire was used
to collect biographical data. A reliability coefficient of 1.47 was obtained on
the hypothesis which was validated. The study found that there is high
influence of parental level of income on Students’ choice of academic line. The
academic choice of Students’ based on gender does not differ especially with Students
from the same economic status. Secondly, there is a significant difference
between developed and developing areas of Jos North on the influence of
parental economic status on the academic line of Students.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The hope that parents hold
for their children’s success in life is often first vetted through their
children’s success in school. Indeed, doing well academically is related to
doing well in life economically (Butler, Beach, & Winfree, 2008). Yet for
many children, chances of academic success are diminished because of poverty
(Ducan & Brooks-Gunn, 2000); family economic status is a strong predictor
of children’s academic outcomes (Sirin, 2005). Children’s academic success is
considered to be a key mechanism for disrupting the intergenerational transmission
of poverty (Orfield, Losen, Wald, &
Swanson, 2004). However, researchers and practitioner need to know more about
the processes that link family economic status with children’s academic outcome
to effectively intervene in the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
Education is the best
legacy a nation can give to her citizens especially the youths. This is because
the development of any nation or community depends largely on the quality of
education of such a nation. It is generally believed that the basis for any
true development must commence with the development of human resources. Much
then is said that formal education remains the vehicle for socio-economic
development and social mobilization in any society.
Nigeria like any other
development nations has witnessed prolong
military rule and aborted civilian administration, which necessitate the
promulgation of decrees, edicts and laws concerning educational practices at
federal, state and local government levels.
The inconsistent continuation of government, due to coup d’etat
de-emphasized the continuity in the implementation of educational laws and
policies since 1970’s till the present time. This gradually laid the foundation
of fallen standard in education at the primary school level of education
(Shittu, 2004).
Danesy (2004) opined that
poverty of parents has elastic effects on their children academic works as they
lack enough resources and funds to sponsor their education and good school,
good housing facilities and medical care and social welfare services. Mba
(2001) lamented that poverty of the parent has made education and learning
impossible for children in the rural areas. He lamented that poverty has
further caused other problems, such as disease, frustration, poor performance,
and psychological problems and so on. Good parenting support by strong economic
home background could enhance strong academic performance of the pupil.
Frequent changes of
ministers and commissioners for education by successive government coupled with
the politicization of education by political parties that emerged in the country’s political scene since 1979
have also brought about disparity in educational practices, which caused
differential academic performance and class room functioning of both teachers
and Students, from state to state (Danesty, 2004).
These measures have not
improved the socio-economic and educational status of families in the country. They
have rather increased their sufferings and widened the socio-economic gap
between families. Johnson (1996) lamented that in contrast, some parents become
poor due to these hard measures, such that they can no longer provide
adequately for good education of their children. Also, they can no longer
provide shelter, clothing and special need of their children in school (such as
provision of text books, school uniforms and good medical care and so on).
High level of illiteracy,
poverty and low socio-economic status coupled with high rate of paternal and
maternal deprivation of pupil’s academic choice, which was necessitate by
poor-economic situation of the country
has thrown many farmer and old rural dwellers into untold financial problems
such as poverty, lack of money to purchase necessary textbooks and working
materials for their wards who are supposed science students. Also, many rural
and suburban dwellers can no longer pay the school fees of their wards. These
ugly situation have prompt Students to drop out of school to engage in
subsistence farming and become housemaids or engage in other menial jobs to
support their academic pursuit or fall back to an easier-to-fund class of
education. Hence, many Students have since taken school as a secondary
assignment and school attendance on rotational basis. The resultant problem
posed by this, is poor academic performance in school examination.
Parents with low
socio-economic status often lacks the financial, social and educational support
that characterizes families with high socio-economic status. Lower income
families have inadequate or limited access to community resources that promote
and support children’s development and school readiness. At secondary school
level, children hailing from low socio-economic status are trained to respect
authority and obey orders that employers like in manual laborers. Conformity
and obedience are encouraged rather than individual critical thinking and
evaluative abilities amongst the Students at this.
It is good to note that
the quality of parents and home background of a pupil goes a long way to
predict the quality and regularity of the satisfaction and provision of a
child’s functional survival and academic needs. Poor parental care with gross
deprivation of social and economic needs of a child, usually yield poor
academic performance of the child. On the other
hand, suffers parental and material deprivation and care due to divorce
or death, or absconding of one of the
parent, the child’s schooling may be affected as the mother alone may not be
financially buoyant to pay school fee
especially for a scientifically career oriented student, purchase books and
uniforms, such child may play truant, thus his performance in school may be
adversely affected (Shittu, 2004).
Danesy and Okediran (2002)
lamented that street hawking among school Students have psychologically imposed
other problems, like sex networking behaviour, juvenile delinquent behaviour,
which takes much of the Students’ school time that necessitate the poor
academic performance and drop out syndrome noticed among school Students.
Nevertheless, they also lamented that the maternal and paternal deprivation of
the essential needs of the Students have prompted their poor performance.
Education not only
provides knowledge, but also inculcates values, training of instincts
and fostering the right attitude and habits. So the quality of education
obtained by students is of great concern to most parents. The various economic,
sociological, political, financial, familial and cultural positions of parents in
general have impact on both the quality and standard of education to wards in a
quest for attaining enviable attributes. Education is considered as a human
right that should be accorded to all human beings, in fact, it was the reason
why a lot of international human right bodies consider education as a fundamental
human right. The first and perhaps the greatest challenge facing Nigeria and
making it difficult for good quality education that is capable of bringing
about sustainable development is corruption and inadequate attention.
Education in Jos North a city
in the Middle Belt of Nigeria with a population of about 900,000 residents
based on the 2006 census, Popularly called "J-town" or "Jesus
Our Saviour" by the residents, the administrative capital of Plateau State
and a Local Government Area in Plateau State, Nigeria, is not exonerated from
the same general menace. These issues underscore the need for this study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Nigeria today is regarded
as a third world country as a result of developmental redundancy. The common
assertion of sociologist that the responsibility of training a child always
lies in the land of the parents and the education can be an instrument of
cultural change which is being taught from home is relevant in this discourse.
It is not out of place to imagine that parental socio-economic background can
have possible effects on the academic line of Students in school. Whatsoever
affect the development environment of children would possibly affect their
education or disposition to it.
In line with the above
assertion, Hill, Henry, and Wilson (2004) also argued that socio-economic
status of parent do not only affect the
academic line, but also makes it impossible for children from law background
not to compete well with their counterparts from high socio-economic background
under the same academic environment.
From the issues above, the
problem of this study to investigate the effects of socioeconomic status on the
enrollment of Students into science classes in Jos North.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
This study highlights the
need for the inspectors of education as quality assurance agents to place a
serious check on the quality of education and system of enrollment of students
in Jos North. The following are the reasons for carrying out this research study:
To determine the effects
of parents’ socio economic status on the academic line of Students.
To determine whether
parental socioeconomic status have the same influence on the academic line of all
Jos North Students.
To determine whether
parental socioeconomic status have the same influence on the academic line of Students
in developed and developing areas of Jos North.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
The following research
questions will help give direction to the research study:
1.
What
is the influence of parental level of income on Students’ choice of academic
line.
2.
Does
parental economic status have high influence on the choice of academic line of
all Jos North Students?
3.
Does
parental economic status have the same influence on the academic line of Students
in developed and developing areas of Jos North?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
The following formulated
hypothesis will help check for the trueness of the research study:
H01
There is no significant effect of parents’ socio-economic
status on enrollment of Students into science classes in Jos North
H02 There
is no significant difference in enrollment rate into science classes between Students
in developed and Students in developing areas in Jos North
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
This work will be of a high
importance to parents, government and policy makers. The findings of the study
may expose some factors that might be responsible for poor performance of Students
in school. The identified areas where government at different levels could come
in will be brought into focus in other bridge the gap of special enrollment
preferences of children of low and high income earners in the society. The
importance of achieving the object of education programme among the general
populace cannot be over emphasized. A researcher, Laosa, has posted as follows:
“The educational
achievement gap has deep root: it is evident very early in child’s lives; even
before they enter primary school. Socio-economic differences such as health and
nutrition status, home environment that
provide access to academically related experience, mobility rates, and
financial assets can certainly influence
academic achievements” (Laosa, 2005).
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
The study is limited to all senior secondary Students
in Jos North, Plateau State.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Socio-Economic
status: The interaction
of social and financial ability/capacity of an individual or parent.