EFFECTS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF PARENTS ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS IN IGUEBEN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Man as a social being is endowed with different abilities to explore his environment and possibly to improve the lots of mankind. That is why there are differences in educational attainment of students. However, these variances are not only found in students’ characteristics like hereditary, age, sex and intelligence quotients which are believed to relate more strongly to his/her achievement levels. A considerable portion of variation in students could be accounted for, in other forms via socio-economic status of parents, family and environment, (family size), beliefs, value and prestige, reward of higher educational parental choice etc. The effects of socio-economic background of parents on the achievement of their children in school have been a great factor in the recent decade in academic system in the country. Socialization is the study of the society. Various sociological schools of thought have asserted that in deciding whether a child performs well or not at school is of immense importance to identify the difference between the influence of the socio-economic background of parents and their children’s academic achievement and attainment. Coleman (1975) and Medill (1963) have argued that parental financial position and their level of education also reflects strongly on students’ performances. This is so because it is generally accepted that the educated parents mostly value education. However, the background of a child affects his success in schools. Levine and Harighurt (1975) discovered that all societies large or small, primitive or modern show social status group phenomenon of ranks.

The leader and people of high esteem occupying position at the top, others occupy intermediate position, yet others are at the foot of the ladder in social scale. Social environmental factors have been found to affect educational achievement of a child. These factors include: Occupational status of his parents. The parent’s attitude towards their children’s school and expectation that they have for their children. Boocock (1973) and Durbey (1972 & 1973) explain that parents of socio-economic upper class have more positive attitudes towards their children schooling and also have high expectations and standard for the children as they are given high motivation of success in school. The status of parents determines the type of education that the child is bound to receive; wealthy parents oen allow their children to attend private schools, while the less privilege or opportune parents send their children to public school where the school fees are affordable to them. Students’ progress through school is reflected not only in grades list scores and accounts of personal behavior in the classroom but in the characteristics. Parents not only train children towards the social norms of the society but improve their socio-economic background towards achieving a stated goal. It’s therefore, imperative and immense benefit to look at the eect of socio-economic background of parents on the academic achievement of their children in schools.

1.2 Statement of Problem

This project is designed to investigate the effect of socio-economic background on the academic achievement of their children in school at Igueben Local Government Area of Edo State. The research aimed at investigating the extent of the following sub-problems: To what extent does parents’ background usually affect their children’s academic performance? To what extent do children from the home of low income group attend school regularly because of their parents’ inability to provide for school requirements and equipment adequately? To what extent there exist good parents – child relationship, how such affects their children’s academic performance?