THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS OF PARENTS ON CHILDREN ACCESS TO SECONDARY EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Education not only provides knowledge and skills, but also inculcates values, training of instincts, 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 congruent with the common assertion by sociologist that education can be an instrument 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, dierent 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 families, rather they influence the average tendencies of families for different occupational classes.” (Rothestein, 2004). In line with the above assertion, Hill et al. (2004) had also argued that socio-economic status of parents do not only aect the academic performance, but also access to good and secondary education and 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). In the same vein, other researchers had posited that parental SES could aect school children as to bring about flexibility to adjustment to the dierent school schedules (Guerin et al., 2001). The same view is shared by Machebe (2012), in her research, concluded that, parental socio-economic status could influence academic performance of their children at school. In a previous local finding in Nigeria, Oni (2007) and Omoegun (2007) had averred that there is significant dierence between the rates of deviant behavior among students from high and low socio-economic statuses.

The health status of the children which could also be traceable to parental socio-economic background can be another factor that can aect the academic performance of the students, Adewale (2002) had reported that in a rural community where nutritional status is relatively low and health problems are prevalent, children academic performance is greatly hindered. This assertion is again hinged on nature of parental socio-economic background. Moreover, Eze (1996) had opined that when a child get proper nutrition, health care, stimulation during pre-school years, the ability to interact with and take optimal advantage of the full complement of resources offered by a formal learning environment is enhanced. According to World Bank (2007) non-school factors such as education of parents, child rearing practices, nutrition, health care and preschool education have more effect on children access to education, it further states that positive school factors such as teachers and books have more effects in developed countries than in developing countries. Thus, positive effects of school inputs are frequently greater in children from lower socio-economic background than those from higher socio-economic background. The issue of poverty is one of the central factors that can affect the demand for education in the socio-economic status of the client of education system UNICEF (2004) poor households are out rapped in a poverty cycle and lack capacity and resources to enable them to aord adequate and balanced food, consequently the inability of the poor to meet the cost of education for their children. As the level of poverty rises, children labor becomes crucial for family survival (Abagi, 1997). \Child labor is increasingly employed in domestic activities, agriculture and petty trade in both rural and urban center and in some cases children themselves have to analyze the opportunity cost of education. As a result parents have continued to send their children in the labor markets mainly as domestic workers in urban centers.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The role of parental involvement in their student’s school children’s education cannot be over-emphasized. Parents play a critical role in modeling their children’s ensuring eective communication between them and the secondary education and identifying the critical needs as regards their children’s academic requirements. Student’s learning and behavior like that of adult will be aected by a range of interacting factors, some of which ride within the learner while others can be traced to the environment and the government policies. The goal of schooling is to provide access to children of school going age on equitable basis thus ensuring education for all learners (MOEST, 2003). In many developing countries like Nigeria the rate of access in schools is low and has been described as a scarce industry (Murungi, 2006). This is mainly attributed to the socio economic status of the parents, the problem of low access in secondary education is therefore worth investigation due to the fact that lives of many students are at risk of being wasted, therefore this research intends to find out the influence of socio economic factors of parents on their children access to secondary education.