ASSESSMENT OF PARENT’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND  AND ITS IMPACT  ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF          SECONDARY SCHOOLS STUDENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

As defined by the United Nations, education is the process of imparting knowledge, training, and learning in order to enhance knowledge while also developing skills, attitudes, and morals. If appropriately directed, it can help a person's capacity to benefit from future opportunities in life. In other words, education assists a person in completely developing his or her skills, prepares him or her to be a responsible citizen, and provides him or her with the stimulation and chance to enhance his or her cultural life. Education not only imparts information and abilities, but it also instills values, trains instincts, and encourages the development of positive attitudes and habits.

As the major agents of socialization, parents have primary responsibility for the education of their children, which is often an informal style of education that is supplemented by formal education received at a formal education institution. The responsibility for sending children to school and ensuring that they are making academic progress falls on the shoulders of the parent as a result of this. Given the critical role education plays in the development of a nation, many individuals are worried about the quality of education provided to children. Consider the National Policy on Education (1998), which focuses on the creation of a robust and virile country by emphasizing the need of qualitative education. In order for this goal to become a reality, a variety of elements must be taken into consideration, one of which being the child's home environment and family history.

Many rural and sub-urban inhabitants are unable to pay the school fees for their children because of financial constraints. Children are compelled to participate in hawking, subsistence farming, housekeeping, and other menial activities in order to fund their scholastic pursuits and provide for their families. Another aspect that might have an impact on a student's academic success is their health state, which can be traced back to their parents' socio-economic backgrounds. Academic performance of children in rural communities where nutritional status is low and health problems are frequent has been observed by Adewole (2005) to be significantly hampered. In a similar vein, competent parenting accompanied by a stable economic base can lead to a student achieving high levels of academic accomplishment. A learning environment that is not free of barriers, obstacles, or distractions such as noise, gas/smoke pollution, and so on can pose health risks to students, which in turn can impair or weaken their attention or perceptual focus on learning, resulting in poor learning outcomes. Markets and garages in close proximity to schools have long presented a danger to schoolchildren. Student life and focus have long been jeopardized by the noise and pollution emanating from these sources.

Although socio-economic status (SES) is commonly defined as a mix of education, income, and profession, there are other ways to quantify SES. It is widely understood to refer to an individual's or group's social standing or class, as opposed to their economic status. At some point, low socio-economic status and its correlates, such as a lack of educational attainment, poverty, and ill health, have an impact on our whole society. According to research, children from low socioeconomic level (SES) families and communities develop academic abilities at a slower rate than children from higher socioeconomic status groups. 

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

 The consequences of parents' socio-economic backgrounds on the academic success of their children have been a significant element in the country's educational system during the last decade, particularly in the public schools. Various sociological schools of thought have asserted that when determining whether a child performs well or poorly at school, it is extremely important to distinguish between the influence of the socio-economic background of the parents and the academic achievement and attainment of their children's is extremely important. Coleman (1975) and Medill (1963) have claimed that the financial situation of parents, as well as their degree of education, has a significant impact on their children's academic success. This is due to the widely held belief that educated parents place a high emphasis on education in their children. The child's upbringing, on the other hand, has an impact on his or her achievement in school. As observed by Alken and Barbarin (2014), the education system in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods is frequently under-resourced, which has a detrimental impact on students' academic achievement. As a result, academic performance is hampered among families from low socioeconomic status areas because they are less likely to have the financial resources or time available to give their children with academic help. Children from low-income families are more likely than others to get a weak foundation in early childhood care, such as at home or with their mothers, day care, preschool, nursery school, primary and secondary schools, and other institutions. Due to a lack of resources, the children were unable to get teaching materials at home or in school, and individual lessons were unable to be organized. This causes student to lose interest in some subjects as a consequence of a poor foundation, and as a result, when they reach their adolescent stage and sit for senior secondary school tests, they do not score well. The reserve is the case with those children belonging to middle and upper class families. As a result, the pupils will lack the abilities that are expected of them at their level, which will have an impact on the country's individual and technical growth. As a result, it was against this backdrop that the researcher was inspired to explore  parent’s socio-economic background  and its impact  on academic achievement of their children in           secondary schools.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The broad objective of this study is to examine influence of parent’s socio-economic background  and its impact  on academic achievement o secondary schools student  in Bwari Area council. Explicitly the study’s specific objectives are:

i.          Establish the influence of marital status of parents on academic achievement of senior secondary school students of Bwari area council.

ii.        Determine the influence of parental level of education on academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Bwari area council.

iii.      Establish the influence of income of parents on academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Bwari area council

iv.      Determine the influence of occupation type of parents on academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Bwari area council

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research is guided by the following question:

i.          Does marital status of parents have a significant influence on  senior secondary school students academic achievement Bwari area council?

ii.        Does parental level of education have any significant influence  senior secondary school students  academic achievement  in Bwari area council?

iii.      Will Parent level of income have a significant impact on  senior secondary school students academic achievement  in Bwari area council?

iv.      Does occupation type of parents have any influence on  senior secondary school student academic achievement of Bwari area council?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The development of a student into a sound and effective citizen depends on the academic achievement and level of educational attainment. Hence, the researcher is of the opinion that the findings of study will provide useful facts which will go a long way to improve academic performances and achievements of student in secondary school in Bwari Area Council.

it is envisaged that the findings of this study may expose some factors that might be responsible for poor performance of students’ in school with emphasis to parent socio-ecoomic status. Hence the result have would be helpful for counselling parent to pay more attention to their ward educational needs and provide them with facilities and support necessary for their academic attainment.

The study  will create relevant awareness for the improvement of education to meet global trend and alert both parents and government of the need to provide adequate psychical and material encouragement for students to attain good educational achievement in senior secondary schools. The identified areas where government at different levels could come in to bridge the gap of educational attainment of children from low and high income earned background in the society.      Finally the study will contribute to body of existing literature on parent socio-economic status and thus serve as a reference material to both scholars and student who wishes to conduct further research in related fiend.

1.6     SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

The scope of this study borders on parent’s socio-economic background  and its impact  on academic achievement of secondary school student. The study will further examine if factors such as marital status of parent, level of income, occupation type of parent and their level of education will have any significant influence on student academic achievement. The study is however delimited to Bwari Area Council in FCT Abuja.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing that it is a new discourse thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only senior secondary schools in Bwari Area Council in FCT Abuja. Thus findings of this study cannot be used generalization in other senior secondary schools in other states within Nigeria. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work will impede maximum devotion to the research. Howbeit, despite the constraint  encountered during the  research, all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

          In order to avoid misinterpretation of terms, the following terms used in this study and their definitions are given in accordance in this study as follows:

Socio-economic Status:  The socio-economic status of an individual in a family within any given society is determined by the level of education, income, occupational background and other criteria of social class.

Academic Achievement/Performance:  This refers to how much an individual has achieved or attain after a course of instructional training in a school settings.

Polygamous Family:  This is a custom in which a man is married to more than one wife at a time.

Monogamous Family:  This is the practice of a man being married to a wife at a time.

Broken Home:  This is a situation whereby the parents of the homes are apart or divorced, that is the parents of a child are not living together (in most cases, the children lack care, security and training).

Unbroken Home:  Here the co-operation exists between the father, mother and children, because they are together and not divorced.  In this practice the children enjoy care, security, training, etc.  So the child is well catered for.

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