AN ASSESSMENT OF SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Without students, schools, colleges, and universities are nothing. Any educational institution's most valuable asset is its students. The country's social and economic prosperity is inextricably connected to student academic achievement. Students' academic success (academic achievement) is critical in creating high-quality graduates who will serve as outstanding leaders and human resources for the country, and thus be accountable for its economic and social progress (Ali, 2009). Previous study has focused on measuring student academic performance; it is a difficult element of academic literature, and scientific students' performance is influenced by social, psychological, economic, environmental, and personal variables. These characteristics have a significant impact on students' performance, but they differ from person to person and nation to country. Based on income, education, and employment, socioeconomic status is a combined economic and sociological complete assessment of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic and social standing compared to others. According to (Michael, 2004), When assessing a family's social economic standing, the household income, earners' education and employment, as well as combined income, are reviewed, as opposed to an individual's own qualities when assessing their own attributes. Another research found that a student's home environment, particularly the provision of learning experiences and cognitive and effective stimulation, had a substantial impact on their academic achievement. 2007 (Sangedighi). The sort of parental work is mostly determined by the educational background of the parents. The type of parental profession has an impact on the amount of time parents devote to monitoring their children's educational development. Bank employees, for example, are required to work early and shut late, making it difficult for them to visit their children at school or check their schoolwork at home. In contrast, government servants have more time to spend with their children, and the parents' employment also impact the pattern of their income or earnings. Farley (2003) claims that a family's socioeconomic standing is determined by the parent's income, employment, and education. Parents with a high economic standing typically have a high salary, a well-respected employment, and are well educated. Parents with low socioeconomic status have low wages, and their children are poorly educated and work in menial or semi-skilled employment. Parents from the middle socioeconomic class have a medium-sized business and a solid education. According to Ramey (2004), families with lower socioeconomic position in third-world nations generally lack the financial, social, and educational assistance that families with higher socioeconomic status have. Parents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have little or no access to community services that encourage and support their children's growth and academic achievement. According to Eamon (2005), pupils from poor socioeconomic backgrounds are taught to respect authority and accept commands in secondary school, which businesses value in manual laborers. Individual critical thinking and evaluative talents are promoted rather than individual conformity and compliance among pupils at this level. The majority of scholars and professionals believe that kids' poor socioeconomic level has a detrimental impact on their academic achievement. Because of their poor socioeconomic level, their wants and desires are unmet, and as a result, they do not achieve higher academic results. Different scientists have found a considerable gap between poor and high socioeconomic level in Africa, including (Eamon, 2005), (Duke, 2000), and (Jeynes' 2002). Low socioeconomic status is frequently depicted as disadvantaged in terms of lower income and lower levels of education, and is thus linked to poor school performance and outcomes. Students are taught the basics, theories, and procedures of business through business education. Identifying the elements that affect pupils' performance is a difficult task (Norhidayah, 2008). It may depend on multiple factors, including socio-economic-behavioral background of students, their family structure and family environment, personal attitude of a student towards his/her studies, level of stress in family or in educational institution, peer pressure, family support financial as well as in studies, teachers level of teaching, environment of the institute where he/she has been studying, previous schooling,regularity in attending classes, daily time spent on studies, overall disciplinary environment/pressure/restrictions in family or in educational institution, living with family (day scholar) or living in a hostel, educational background of the student (i.e., what sort of institution he or she has been to before joining university for higher education), what kind of courses he or she has already studied before undertaking business studies, student’s time consumed in extracurricular activities, lack of preparation for a particular exam, student’s working habits and commitment for studies, self motivation and level of healthy competition in class room among the students, gender of the student, father’s profession and income level, parents’ education, parental pressure, locality where they live, whether they belong to a main city or a small town, etc (Kamaruzaman, 2010). As a result, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the socioeconomic determinants that influence the academic achievement of Business Education students at the Federal College of Education in Imo State.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Researchers have conducted various research studies on the socio-economic factors that affect students and their impact on their academic achievement, as high rates of failure at tertiary institutions have resulted in unacceptable levels of attrition, reduced graduates across the board, and increased the cost of training a nation's labor force, laying the groundwork for the country's declining standard of learning (Syukriah, 2009). As a result, the purpose of this study was to look at the socio-economic determinants that influence students' academic performance in the Business Education Department at the Federal College of Education in Obowo, Imo state.

1.3       OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study's main goal was to:

i. determine the extent to which learning facilities impact the performance of Business Education students.

ii. assess the extent to which students' study habits affect their academic success.

iii. determine the impact of a student's family history on their academic achievement in Business Education.

iv. establish the extent to which peer pressure has an impact on students' academic achievement.

1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

i. What is the extent to which learning facilities impact the performance of Business Education students?

ii. What is the extent to which students' study habits affect their academic success?

iii. What are the impacts of a student's family history on their academic achievement in Business Education?

iv. How can the extent to which peer pressure has an impact on students' academic achievement be established?

1.5       SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study focused on the socio-economic determinants impacting students' academic achievement at Federal College of Education, although it will be confined to the Business Education department at Federal College of Education in Imo State due to time, money, and other constraints.

1.6       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings might be beneficial to both college policymakers and student parents. It assists the college administration in developing and implementing policies to promote student academic achievement and educational quality by altering students' attitudes toward learning, assisting students, and enhancing teaching methods. Parents may utilize the study's findings to help their children handle difficulties, particularly financial ones, and to look after them. It may also raise student understanding of their rights and duties in order to get a high-quality education.

1.7      DEFINITION OF TERMS

Academic: To be a member of an academy or other higher learning institution.

Assessment: refers to the process of breaking anything down into its constituent parts in order to analyze it (a complex thing, concept, theory). It's also a demonstration of loyalty to a recognized fact.

Factor: One of numerous things that causes or influences something.

Achievement is the act of performing; it is the act of putting something into action. It is also anything which is done or carried out; a thing done or carried out an achievement a deed: an act; a feat, especially one of a grand or public kind.

Socio-Economy is the successful administration of a society's resources.