ABSTRACT

The research study investigated and identified the parental socio-economic factors affecting academic performance of students, a case study of Faculty of Education and Extension Services. A self-developed questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection, it was found that, parent socio-economic status is one of the major determinants of students’ performance, this is because considering the dependency of students on parents for their educational responsibilities as indicated that more than 60% of the respondents agreed that children educations responsibility is relies on their parents. This means that the higher the socio-economic status of the parents is the higher of achievement and success of the children to be academically, unlike parents whom are in medium and low socio-economic status; students who belong to them are likely to be affected on their academic performance and achievements.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0         Background    of the Study

Academic performance, which is measured by the examination result, is one of the major goals of schools. Hoyle (1986) argued that schools are established with the aim of imparting knowledge and skills to those who go through them and behind all this is the idea of enhancing good academic performance. The economy of a nation determines to a great extent the type, content and method of education a country provides for its citizens. This therefore means that, rich countries of the world have complex system of education because they have resources for effective implementation of the system. The economic status of the family also is a

significant variable or factors that affect the educational life chance of a child. This therefore means the higher the economic status of parents the higher the educational life chances of the child from such family (Mahuta, 2007).

Education is the process by which a person’s mind and character are developed through teaching. Education is the earliest and largest industry in society it includes students, teachers, administrator and other staff who participates in the institutions everywhere. Ivan Klich (1973) states that education should be a liberating experience in which the individual expose create uses his initiatives and judgment and freely develops his faculties and talents to the full. In this respect, the need for effective academic performance of students cannot be over emphasized in any educational institution, primary, secondary and university. It is the performance of students that enable us to measure the standard of the schools.

The formal education of a child is co-operative venture between the school and the home since each exerts considerable influence on the child. The school is represented by school personnel that is, teachers, headmasters and school administration while the home is represented by parents and guardians (Eunice, 1991& Griffith, 1968). The issue of academic performance has increasingly become a matter of great concern for all and much of interest particularly to the parents and educationalist. Various reasons have been advanced by researchers for this deteriorating performance in school. Some of them view that the reason for lack of qualified teachers, text books and poor planning of curriculum. In addition, education is the bedrock of development, without education, there will be no meaningful development.

In Nigerian Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities, the economic position of an individual in addition to their attitude towards education may to a large extent determine the level of their academic performance in schools. This project is therefore going to examine and analyses parental socio-economic factors affecting academic performance of students in Faculty of Education and Extension Services, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.

1.1         Statement of the Problem

The core issue of the research work is to investigate into the effects of parents socio-economic background on their children’s academic performance in school. Over the years, it has been observed that the poor performance of some children may have a strong connection with their socio-economic status