With these poor performances of students in Oyo State, observation has been traced to different problems.
Measurement of Socio-Economic Status of the Parents and Students’ Academic Performance
Parent’s socio-economic status is based on family income, parental education level, parental occupation, and social class in the community (such as contacts within the community, group associations, and the community’s perception of the family). Despite all the research and policy making, the relativity between those of high and low status from among the parents in relation to their children’s education is widening rather than narrowing across educational achievement (Galindo – Rueda, Marcenaro – Gutierrez & Vignoles, 2004; Conger & Donnellan, 2007). It is believed that low socio-economic status and low educational background negatively affect academic achievement because they both prevent access to vital resources and create additional stress at home (Jeynes 2002, Eamon 2005).
According to a draft report of the Australian commission on health, Krieger, Williams and Moss (2007) refered to socio-economic position as an aggregate concept that includes both resource–based and prestige–based measures, as linked to both childhood and adult social class position from among the children. Akanle (2007) also mentioned parental income in his work to be a strong factor upon which the academic and vocational successes of secondary and junior school student lie. According to his investigation, parental income cannot be sufficient to sustain the academic and personal social life of the student in sub rural school areas. This can seriously affect the psychological balance or homeostatic balance in the classroom, which causes low concentration, low perception, frustration, sickness and emotional disability in academic performance of the students and can also lead to dropping out or withdrawal. Therefore, a child may be found to perform poorly in his school work and even drop out of school, when he is deprived of essential needs. This is consistent with Bugembe, Joseph & Kagugude’s, (2005) finding which suggested that child welfare at school is a determinant of child retention and also incorporates the right of children to adequate living standards (shelter, nutrition and healthcare, water, and sanitation services) that are vital for child growth and development. Bugembe et al (2005) explained that in urban areas, most poor families can hardly afford the cost of water talk-less of education of their children and this can no doubt lead to a low academic performance and high dropout rate.
The educational background on the other hand basically means the type of education acquired by an individual; it can be western or religious depending on the environment and geographical location. Educational background may be the number of schools attended and the type of certificates obtained right from primary to tertiary level. Research shows that pupils from families where parents have less education tend to systematically perform worse in schools than pupils whose parents have more education. Nannyonjo (2007) opined that students from the educated parents who attended and finished senior four or senior six or university performed considerably better than the student with parents who did not finish primary or just finished primary school. Students whose fathers had university degree may likely expect to have the highest increase in test score.
Parental Occupation and Students’ Academic Performance
Traditionally, parental profession has been regarded as a predictor of children’s academic performance. Parental occupation either directly or indirectly goes a long way to determine children’s’ academic performance.
A recent meta-analysis of studies investigating the relationship between socio-economic status and academic achievement shows that different variables of socio-economic status e.g., parental education, parental income and parental profession have different effects on academic attainment (Sirin, 2005). Increasingly, parental occupational status is part of a larger constellation of sociological variables influencing children’s school outcome (Sirin, 2005). The nature of occupation engaged in by parents will determine how they give attention to their children’s education because some parents that are engaged in low income occupation ask their children to fend for their school fees and other educational materials needed. Fizbe and Shady (2009) affirmed that for some parents the opportunity cost of schooling are associated with labour shortage, resources and services lost by the reason of sending their children to school. Child labour is indispensable to the survival of many rural households in Sub-Sahara Africa: agricultural work, domestic work (cooking, collecting fuel, fetching water), marketing as well as child care services are required from children. The need for domestic labour has grown also with the rapid growth of urban areas. Low paid occupation has made parents to respond by sending their children into domestic labour markets in exchange for cash income (Saifi & Mehmood 2011).
