ABSTRACT
The
study examined the effect of socio-economic status of parents on the academic
performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. Main objectives of the
study were to examine the effect of socio-economic status, health and
educational background of parents on secondary school students’ performance in
Nigeria.
Concerning
methodology, the researcher employed both primary and secondary data for the
study. Secondary data for the study was gotten from textbooks, research
journals and the internet. The researcher used questionnaire for the collection
of data from the respondents. A sample of 200 students from five(5) secondary
schools were used for the study. Data was analysed using the chi-square method
of hypothesis testing and formulation.
Findings
from the study revealed that socio-economic status of parents affect the
academic performance of students. Out of 200 students used for the study,
majority asserted to this and the alternate hypothesis was accepted. Other
findings from the study showed that there is a relation between student health
status and their academic performance as well as parets educational background.
The
researcher recommended that various strategies should be put in place to reduce
peer to peer influence.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education
is the best legacy parents can give to their children. The development of the
nation starts from the family. When the family succeeds in teaching and
impacting good values in their children, the country becomes a better place to
live. It is generally believed that the basis for any true development must
commence with the development of human resource. Formal education is the
demonstration of such desires to effectively and efficiently build a sound and
strong economy.
Numerous factors have been identified in various research studies to be
responsible for the continuous declining of our educational system. Various
factors such as classroom size, poor teacher-student ratio, in-adequate
instructional materials, attitude of teachers towards work and lack of
seriousness in part of students.
With the availability of more qualified teachers, improved technology and
facilities for teaching and learning, educational system in Nigeria is still
losing it values.
Motivation for this study is based on the fact that some students are
exceptionally good in their work, while some extremely bad. When such
variations in scores are traced it is more often discovered that family
background is a major contributory factor. It is therefore important that the
levels of such contributions and the influence they have on children be
examined so that useful suggestions to parents, teachers, educational planners
and government could be made.
Orhungur (1990) asserts that the cultural background of the family is
determined to a large extent by its socio-economic background. As the child
grows up moves out to the interest wider society his/her interaction with it
and perception of it are largely determined from her earlier, experiences at home.
The family setting and its socializing influence mould the personality of the
child. Nigeria, for instance is a society with diverse ethnic groups with
various cultural background in areas like family size, occupation and in
extreme cases, religion. These factors pose their own restrictions on
educational upbringing of children. The social sitting or mode of settlement of
the family and extended family system may equally influence the academic
performance of a child and by extension, their educational upbringing.
Motivation is most need in order to perform more efficiently in their area of
endeavor. When certain factors are eminent in a child’s family background, it
is clear that the child will be motivated and driven towards high academic
goal.
Denga (1986) in Eyake (1997) advised that praises, incentives, recommendations
and other forms of reward system should be employed as motivational factors to
stimulate students to higher achievements. It is likely that the much a child
achieves during his school days is largely dependent on the kind of family to
which he/ she belongs. For instance, a child whose parents take a great deal of
interest in what he/ she does at school and give him / her necessary support by
providing all the required books and finances needed has a great advantage over
a child whose parents do not give him this kind of incentives and
encouragements.
More so, students’ attitudes to learning and educational performances are
shaped by the kind of stimuli offered to them by their various environments.
This can be considered in terms of the type of family, the home, parental
social orientation, educational level, occupation to mention but a few. It is
therefore, evident that students’ performance is contingent on the stimulus the
home offers.
Educational upbringing is not unconnected with the family influence of a child.
Individual members of the family serve as a model to the child as he/ she
copies from each of them. Eyake (1997) quoted. Adeyeme (1977) if the house
fails to provide the child with the necessary equipments to fit him/ her into
his proper place in the society and guided properly for his/ her future career,
then the child is damaged. An analysis of the percentage of secondary school
dropout today entails that such students are usually from broken homes, wiring
polygamous family or with other socially related problems.
The agrarian and large families have accounted for the polygamous life of
people. The large the size of the family, the more economic and other social
responsibilities the parents bring upon themselves. And more often than not,
the educational performance of students from such family suffer serious
setback. This is because such parents might not be able to afford the cost
funding education for the children.
Other factors may affect the education performance of students like separation
on grounds of different working station, divorce or even natural death can
bring adverse effect on the growth and development of a child.
Furthermore, economic position of parents is one of major factors that can
influence greatly the educational upbringing of a child. In most families,
either or none of parents may be earning income sufficient enough to sustain
the family, faced with malnutrition and other emotional and psychological effects,
the mental development of the child would be greatly retarded. Orhunger
(1990) adds that a low income family with plenty of feeding problems may
produce children who physical and mental development poses real challenges to
the schools effort at optimum development of the child.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The
gap in performance between students and academic excellence constitute a great
source of worry and serious concern as well as discomfiture to both parents,
schools mangers, policy makers and various governments responsible for the
education of students’ in secondary school schools.
Experience has shown that among the secondary school students’ there exist some
differences which influence students academic performance, such as some
students’ being able to pay their school fees promptly, while
others were often sent away for nonpayment of school fees, some students
have problem with the provision of school uniform but others do not.
Likewise, some students were motivated by their parents through the provision
of educational materials like text books and exercise books, others were not,
where as some students’ come to school properly feed, others not. One then
wonders whether influence of family background had played a in these
issues.
In the light of this, the main problem of this search is to find out if there
exist in Lagos metropolis a relationship between socio-economic status of
parents and students’ academic
performance.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the study is to examine the influence of socio-economic
status on academic performance of students in lagos Metropolis. Specific
objectives of the study include:
- To investigate into the effect of
socio-economic status of parents on the educational performance of
students’.
- To find out if social-economic
status of parents influence their students’ academic performance in
physics.
- To find out whether educational
attainment of parent affect their students’ academic performance in
physics.
- To find out the influence of
family size on educational upbringing of physics
students.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
For the purpose of this research work the following research questions have
been
formulated;
- Do parents socio-economic statuses
influence the academic performance of the
students?
- Is there any effect of family size
on the academic performance of physics students?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses will be tested to guide this study;
- The socio-economic status of
parents has no significant effect on the academic performance of physics
students.
- There is no significant effect
between family size and the academic performance of students in
physics.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE STUDY
The work of this nature when completed may help the parents to be aware of the
effect the family has on children and how such affect the child positively or
negatively in relation to their academic performance. From the available
recommendations, they will be able to adopt measures of bringing up there in
such a way that they will perform well
academically.
Similarly, it is likely to encourage parents to make their children relatively
comfortable in schools. This study also could aid children of various families
to be aware and bear in mind with their parents in ability to provide them with
all the necessary requirements in schools, and also sympathize with them in
family problems and situations.
More so, educational and curriculum planners could be guided in planning the
curriculum without rigidity to suit diverse cultural environments. In addition,
the teachers would be aware that a cordial teacher parent relationship may in a
way improve the influence of family background on the academic performance of a
child in
school.
The research of this nature is likely to help the state, nation and the world
in general benefit from as adherence to the recommendations and implementation
will help produce youths who would be better leaders of
tomorrow.
Finally, the research when completed may add to available literature and may
encourage further research on the topic.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
It would be much demanding to undertake a complete study of the effects of
socio-economic status of parents on the academic performance of students in
Lagos metropolis and due to logistics constraint on the researcher, only five
schools will be sampled, sampled schools are selected based on their
metropolitan population characteristics.
The study is likely to be confined to senior secondary school (ss1) students of
the selected schools. This is because (ss1) is the beginning of senior
secondary school class. If family background affects students in (ss1), it is
assumed that likely to affect their performances in senior secondary school
certificates examinations and even worst in their higher academic performance.
1.8 DEFINITION OF
TERMS
As words may mean differently in different contexts, the following definitions
are given as the words used as intended to be understood for the purpose of
this study.
FAMILY: Is a unit comprising of husband, wife and children.
FAMILY SIZE: The number of people in the family.
FAMILY SYSTEM: This includes monogamy and may be nuclear or extended
family.
HOME ENVIRONMENT: This refers to parental experience and aspirations for
children, objects and material conditions in the home for comfort and also
specific behavioral processes conducive to learning.
EDUCATIONAL UPBRINGING: This refers to education of children and how
they perform in academics when subjected to test or examination.
EDUCATIONAL STATUS: This term is used for social processes in which one
achieve social competence and individual growth, carried on in a selected,
controlled sitting which can be institutionalized as a school or college.
OCCUPATIONAL STATUS: Person’s trade, vocation or principal means of
earning living.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS: This refers to position of recognition which one
finds him in the society. Such a position may not be hereditary but acquired
through personal efforts like education, wealth, occupation and social class.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: This refers to the students’ achievement, scores
within the class and his position relative to all those subjected the same
test.
EFFECTS: the result or outcome of anything be it positive or negative.
HOME SITUATION: This refers to prevailing atmosphere in the home whether
violent, resentful or in disarray.
PARENTAL ATTITUDE: Parents disposition to respond in a characteristics
way to some stimulus in their social environment. Some responses determine the
way and manner their children are brought up by them.