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Influence Of Family Background On The Academic Achievement Of Senior Secondary School Student
[A CASE STUDY OF BABCOCK UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL, OGUN STATE]
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Students from low
socio-economic status families may not be strongly motivated to do well
in school and may not be knowledgeable about techniques of being
successful in school. High socio-economic status parents who have
benefited in a variety of ways from education serves as effective and
enthusiastic advocate of schooling (Carlson, 2003). In line with this
Qkwulanya (2003) opines that motivation from educated parents
strengthens the academic aspiration and language development in their
children to perform better in their academic work. According to the
scholar, some children may come from homes were academic is much valued,
where there are books around them and most of the time, they see their
parents reading. Their parents may give them books as Christmas
presents. They encourage them to read many books wither by organizing
mini, library for them at home or by encourage to use the state library.
The author went further to emphasize that some children may come from
illiterate homes, where no importance is attached to books. In such
families children scarcely see their parents at home.
In all, the
researcher's conclusion is that motivated students are likely to engage
in an activity more vigorously and more effectively than unmotivated
one. Motivation is always goal orientated. The importance of parental
level of education to academic achievement of students cannot be over
emphasized. Students from professional and to a lesser extent managerial
occupational backgrounds exhibit higher academic performance (Gary,
2001). In support of this view, Onochie and Okpalla (1985) opined that
educational level of parents which is an indicator of socio-economic
status has direct influence on child's values and academic achievement
in the school. They mentioned that children from illiterate families may
learn little or nothing from home that can help them develop interest
in academic. This is in contrast to what is obtainable from children
from literature families where parents provide atmosphere conducive for
the formation of good study habits (Qeca, 1980).
Parental occupation
is also an important family background variable. The occupation of one's
parents may determine to a large extent one's opportunity to attend
secondary school or not. Ezeji (2001) noted that parents like their
children to take to their occupation, like parents who are lawyers,
doctors, musicians among others. Examples of such people in the country-
include Gani faweiheni, the prominent human right lawyer, Oliver
Akalite (Oliver De coque) and Osita Osadebe who were famous musicians
each of these great men had one or more of his children in his type of
occupation. Uwaomn (2066) asserted that most vocational students were
children whose parents are farmer or craftsmen. In Nigeria most children
whose parents cannot afford to pay for high cost of formal education
enroll into apprenticeship programmes such as carpentry, brick laying,
petting trading and others. In the study area, there is a seeming
general poor performance among secondary school students. Evidences of
the poor performances are seen in both students' internal and external
examination. For instance, the available records of WAEC result analyses
from 2005 to 2011 indicate downward trends in student'
academicachievement. According to the analyses, the achievement levels
of students arc as follows: 2005-27.53%, 2006-15.56%, 2007-25.54%. 2008
13.76%, 2009-25.99%, 2010-24.94% and 2011 -30.99% (source: WAEC Lagos).
It
is against this background that the researcher is interested
investigating the influence of family background on students academic
achievement in Nsukka education zone of Enugu state. The researcher
intends to investigate the variables in the family background with a
view of assessing their relative influence on academic achievement of
senior secondary school student in Nsukka education zone.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Most
students in Nigerian secondary schools are in greater risk of poor
academic achievement in both internal and external examinations (WAEC
and NECO). For instance, the available records of WAEC result analysis
from 2005-2011 show a continuous decline in students overall performance
in school certificate examinations.
Government, parents, teachers
and students blame one another for students' poor performance in
schools. Parents blame teachers for lack of dedication to duties. The
teachers blame government for poor salaries hence they are poorly
motivated, parents also accuse government for not equipping the schools
with learning materials, government blame parents for not doing good
homework and the students are blamed for lack of discipline and
dedication to their studies.
In light of the above issues, the
outstanding and relevant question is: what is the influence of family
background on academic achievement of secondary school students?
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study examined the influence of family background on the academic achievement of senior secondary school student in babcock university high school, ogun state.More specifically, the study sought to assess the academic performance within sound family background and paltry family background in Senior secondary schools.The study consist of all senior secondary school students in Babcock high school (SSS1-3), simple random sampling technique was use to pick the respondents and 122 senior secon ... Continue reading---
