Influence Of Birth Order And Gender On Academic Achievement Of Secondary School Students
[A CASE STUDY OF OFFA LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF KWARA STATE]

    Sibling rivalry: - In families where siblings rivalry reaches a pathological level and especially when a scarcity of parental resources such as affection exacerbates already severe rivalry. First borns may be less willing to give a way competitive advantage by sharing knowledge with their siblings but the first borns in question will by that same token likely study harder for their own benefit gaining reinforcement similar to what they would realize from teaching process.
Intelligence
    Since 2004 one of the most influential theories to explain why first borns frequently score higher on intelligence and achievement tests than other children is the confluence model of Robert Zajonc. This model states that because first borns mainly have adults influences around them in their early years, they will spend their initial years of life interacting in a highly intellectual family environment. This effect may also be observed in siblings who although later born have no siblings in between. These children are considered to be “functional first borns”. It was observed that firstborns will be more intelligent than only children because the later will not benefit from the “tutor effect” (i.e. teaching younger siblings).
    Study: - It was also shown that grand parents stressed to first born males while they were growing up that they must study properly and hard to avoid bringing shame to the family. This was not stressed to other males nor females. First born males received at least a little training or instruction in traditional language and culture than laterborn males and females.
Sexuality
     The fraternal birth order effect is the name given to the observation that the more older brothers a man has, the greater probability is that he will have a homosexual orientation. The fraternal birth order effect is the strongest known predictor of sexual orientation, with each older brother increasing a man’s odds of being gay by appropriately 33%. Even so the fraternal birth order effect only accounts for a maximum of seventh of the prevalence of homosexuality in men. There seems to be no effect of sexual orientation in women and no effect on number of older sisters. Edward suggests that birth effect on homosexuality may be a by-product of an evolved citation needed mechanism that shifts personality away from heterosexuality in laterborn sons. This would have the consequence of reducing the probability of these sons engaging in unproductive competition with each other.
    Transgender individuals, both male to female and female to male often experience problems which often lead to dismissals underachievement difficulty in finding a job, social isolation and, occasionally, violent attacks against them. In an educational setting there could be claims that a student was excluded from an educational institution, program, opportunity, loan, student group or scholarship due to their gender. Unfair discrimination usually follows the gender stereotyping held by a society. There is no societies in which female children enjoy the same opportunities as male children. The United Nations had concluded that female children often experience a “glass ceiling”. The term “glass ceiling” is used to describe a perceived barrier to advancement or achievement in life based on discrimination, especially sex discrimination. In the United States in 1995, the glass ceiling commission, a government funded group, stated “over half of all master’s degree are now awarded to women, yet 95% of senior – level managers of the top fortune 1000 industrial and 500 service companies are men.
The Family Unit
    As the tendency appears to be for African Societies to adopt the small family unit, provided here are analyses of the normal roles of each member of such a group – father, mother brothers and sisters. It must be remembered that there is no such thing as a typical family. Fafunwa (1981) emphasized that different background naturally affect the pupils performance. A child from a large family unit where they struggle to feed once daily may not perform better academically.
    It has been established that the family has a great influence in the direction and development of student interest. Duntoye (2002), parent with small numbers of children have enough time and attention for their needs.
    Glenn Myers, Blair and Stewart Jones (1999) emphasized that the people in the lower case keep large family unit, which tend to move poverty. Hence, Norman (1999) sees that family as one of the factors that can contribute to achievement or failure of a student.
Summary of the Review of Related Literature
     In the related literature reviewed on the influence of birth order and gender on students’ academic achievement, the various factors related to birth order which can influence positively or negatively students’ achievement has been looked into.
    The review has also shown that birth rank has a prominent role to play on student achievement as a result the importance attached to the issue of first born and last born in African generally which has also given rise to some issues discussed like. The parents, personality position sibling effects intelligence sexuality and the family unit.
    According to Toman (2000) he emphasized the strength of the student siblings in helping him/her achieve his/her goal in life.