CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 

Education is an important aspect of economic development. When citizens of a country are educated that is a key to social, economic and political stability (Ojiambo, 2009). The Kenya government has considerably invested in education which is evidenced by the free primary education and the free day secondary education (Ojiambo, 2009). The main purpose of education is to transmit wisdom and knowledge from one generation to another, this prepares young people to become members of the society, maintaining it and developing it. Education also has positive influence on population, health nutrition and also increases value and efficiency for labour (Kising‟u, 2012). The unemployment problems facing the country can best be addressed through equipping the young people with skills that can lead to self employment, the curriculum should equip the learners with entrepreneural skills, and this indicates the importance of Commerce/ marketing in the school curriculum. Commerce means all the activities which start from production and end at consumption. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural and technological systems that are in operation in any country or internationally. It is an exchange of goods or commodities, especially on a large scale between different countries (foreign commerce) or between different parts of the same country (domestic commerce) trade; business. Also, it's activities that relate to the buying and selling of goods and services. Marketing deals with the management process through which goods and services from producer to the customer. Nigeria like any other developing country has witnessed series of political instability with obvious effects on educational policies at federal and state government levels. This gradually laid the foundation of fallen standard in education at secondary school level, which caused differences in academic achievement of students. In the quest of survival, the nation evolvement service for socio-economic and educational measures has not improved the socio-economic status of families influencing students’ academic achievement in Nigeria. According to Olotu (1994), in the quest of finding survival, the nation has evolved service of socio-economic and educational measures and policies such as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP), Austerity Measures, Universal Basic Education (UBE) and devaluation of the Naira. 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 socioeconomic gap between families.Over the years, assessments of factors that influence academic achievement in senior secondary physics educatio student have attracted the interest and concern of many researchers, teachers, parents and national leaders. It is a well known fact that student achievement in academic activities vary, some physics students perform better than the other, many discouraged students feel that the length of their student career would be limited by their finances, rather than by their academic ability, this affects them psychologically which affects their academic achievement eventually. In some cases, particularly males, they are easily affected by peer group pressure to whom secondary education may be unimportant.Effective teaching and learning is affected by some factors, such as admission points, social economic status, family and school background. Geiser and Santelices (2007), Acato (2006), and Swart (1999) all argue that admission points which are a reflection of the previous performance influence future learning ability of students. Considine and Zappala (2002) argue that families where the parents are advantaged socially, educationally and economically foster a high level of achievement in their children. Sociocultural approaches to the process of learning are increasingly being applied by educationalists. Sociocultural theorists argue that individuals cannot be considered in isolation from their social and historical context and therefore it is necessary to look at the society and the developments occurring at a given time. Two principal agencies, the family and the school powerfully shape children’s learning experiences. The influence of these two agencies is constrained by the wider social and cultural systems into which they are embedded. There is great diversity in cultural backgrounds, social conditions, family arrangements and school organization. These two factors have been going through constant modifications. The relationship between family socio-economic status and the learning outcomes of students is well established in sociological research. While there is disagreement over how best to measure social factors, most studies indicate that students from low social status families do not perform as well as they potentially could at school compared to students from socially high background (Graetz, 1995). Most studies, however, compare students from across all social backgrounds to reach the conclusion that low social status adversely affects a range of teaching and learning outcomes. 

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

One of the factors that has great effect on teaching and learning is social factors, such as background, environment. Therefore, there is need to research the social factors that affect effective teaching and learning of Commerce/ marketing in senior secondary schools in Abuja. And find a way to deal with them.