ABSTRACT
This study investigated the influence of socio-economic status and school location on secondary school students‘ performance in accounting in Kwara and Osun State, Nigeria. Four operative objectives, four research questions were raised to guide the study and four research hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The total population of the study was 533 secondary schools and 13,063 students, and the samples of 53 schools 1186 respondents were drawn using random sampling. Data were collected using self designed questionnaire. Percentages were used to analyze bio data, the mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA statistics were used to test the four null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that parental educational level, occupation, social standing and school location had significant influence on students‘ academic performance in Accounting in Kwara and Osun States. It was concluded that socio-economic status and school location were significant factors that contributed to students‘ academic performance. It was recommended that social and economic policies should be put in place by government to enable children from low economic status to have equal opportunity of advancing their education.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Historically, all societies usually establish hierarchies among their members. Socio-stratification is universal. Human beings have invented numerous ways to classify people by wealth, power, prestige, ability, education, occupation; even through where they live. According to Parson, Stephanie and Deborah (2001), socio-economic status is an expression which is used to differentiate between people‘s relative status in the community regarding family income, political power, educational background and occupational status. The socio-economic status of a child is usually determined by parental educational level, parental occupational status and income level (Jeynes, 2002). The term "social class" originally referred to groups of people holding similar roles in the economic processes of
production and exchange, such as landowners or tenants, employers or employees. Such positions correspond to different levels of status, prestige, and access to political power. However, social class eventually took on a more generic meaning and came to refer to all aspects of a person's rank in the social hierarchy (Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2002).
