THE EFFECT OF SOCIO- ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS ON THEIR PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education not only provides knowledge and skills, but also inculcates values, training ofinstincts, fostering right attitude and habits. According to Muhammed and Muhammed (2010)they are of the opinion that, cultural heritage and values are transmitted from one generation to another through Education. The responsibility of training a child always lies in the hand of the parents. This is appropriate with the common assertion by sociologist that education can be aninstrument of cultural change which is being taught from home is relevant in this discuss. It is not out of place to imagine that parental socio-economic background can have possible effects on the academic achievement of children in school. Whatsoever affect the developmental stage of children would possibly affect their education or disposition to it. Parental status is one of such variables. When a woman’s nutritional status improves, so too does the nutrition of her young children “Parents of different occupational classes often have different styles of child rearing, different ways of disciplining their children and different ways of reacting to their children. These differences do not express themselves consistently as expected in the case of every family rather they influence the average tendencies of families for different occupational classes.”(Rothestein, 2004).In line with the above assertion, Hill (2004) had also argued that socio-economic status of parents do not only affect the academic performance, but also makes it possible for children from low background to compete with their counterparts from high socio-economic background under the same academic environment. Moreover, Smith, Fagan and Ulvund (2002) had asserted that significant predictor of intellectual performance at age of 8 years included parental socio-economic status (SES).