ABSTRACT
This is an investigation on the effect of
family background on academic performance of secondary school students in
Nigeria.
The description research design was used
in the study parental status High 50-100%, low (49-0%)
Wealthy and not wealthy
The findings of this study showed that
there is no significant effect of family size on academic performance of
children but what can affect the performance is the effect of home situation on
the academic performance of their children.
Keywords: Background, family, academic
performance
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Front
page
II.
Certification
III.
Dedication
IV.
Acknowledgement
V.
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
of the study
1.2
Purpose
of the study
1.3
Research
question
1.4
Hypothesis
1.5
Significance
of study
1.6
Scope
of the study
1.7
Operational
deformation of terms
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Introduction
2.2.1 Theoretical Framework
2.2.2 Conceptual framework
2.2.3 Empirical Review
2.2.4 Summary
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research design
3.3 Aim of study
3.4 Population of the Study
3.5
Sampling & Sampling
3.6
Instrument
3.7 Validation of instrument
3.8 Method of date collection
3.9 Method of date analysis
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Introduction, presentation of results &
date analysis
4.2 Date presentation analysis and
interpretation
4.2.1 Research question 1
4.2.2 Research question 2
4.2.3 Hypothesis 1
4.2.4 Hypothesis 2
4.3 Discussion of findings
4.3.1 Socio-economic status and performance
4.3.2 Family size and student performance
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1
Introduction
5.2
Summary
5.3
Recommendation
5.4
Conclusion
5.5
Suggestion
for further study
5.6
References
5.7
Appendix
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Education
is a basic tool used by society for transmission of its societal values. It has
become an area of prime importance not only for government or voluntary
agencies but also for individuals, families, Governments and communities.
Voluntary agencies and individuals are committing a lot of resources in order
to achieve success in the educational enterprise (Orhungur, 1990).
Awoniyo
(1991) put it that the government believes that the greatest investment of a
nation should be in her people. The greatness of any nation depends on the
genius, qualities, attitudes and aspirations of her people and it cannot expect
to be ignorant and free at the same time.
Many
factors and reasons have been given as being responsible for the continuous
falling in the academic standard of our present educational system. These
includes; attitudes of teachers to work, lack of seriousness on the part of the
students, effect of the dwindled economy and to some extent the increasing
degenerating moral system. Despite all possible efforts put forward by various
governments and voluntary agencies to curb these trends, the country is yet to
witness the rise it desires to see in the educational system.
The
saddest irony of it all is that we have all the teaching facilities and
equipments with modern infrastructures, more qualified and experienced teachers
now than we had in the past, more improved effective teaching methods and
strategies and all the facilities as well as basic amenities one could need foe
effective learning. The worry then was, why is education falling continuously
in the system today?
The
researchers’ interest and motivation in this topic is the fact that some
students are exceptionally good in their work, while some extremely bad. When
such variations in scores are traced it is more often discovered that family
background is a major contributory factor. It is therefore important that the
levels of such contributions and the influence they have on children be
examined so that useful suggestions to parents, teachers, educational planners
and government could be made.
Orhungur
(1990) asserts that the cultural background of the family is determined to a
large extent by its socio-economic background. As the child grows up moves out
to the interest wider society his/her interaction with it and perception of it
are largely determined from her earlier, experiences at home. The family
setting and its socializing influence mould the personality of the child.
Nigeria, for instance is a society with diverse ethnic groups with various
cultural background in areas like family size, occupation and in extreme cases,
religion. These factors pose their own restrictions on educational upbringing
of children. The social sitting or mode of settlement of the family and
extended family system may equally influence the academic performance of a
child and by extension, their educational upbringing.
Motivation
is most need in order to perform more efficiently in their area of endeavor.
When certain factors are eminent in a child’s family background, it is clear
that the child will be motivated and driven towards high academic goal.
Denga
(1986) in Eyake (1997) advised that praises, incentives, recommendations and
other forms of reward system should be employed as motivational factors to
stimulate students to higher achievements. It is likely that the much a child
achieves during his school days is largely dependent on the kind of family to
which he/ she belongs. For instance, a child whose parents take a great deal of
interest in what he/ she does at school and give him / her necessary support by
providing all the required books and finances needed has a great advantage over
a child whose parents do not give him this kind of incentives and
encouragements.
More
so, students’ attitudes to learning and educational performances are shaped by
the kind of stimuli offered to them by their various environments. This can be
considered in terms of the type of family, the home, parental social
orientation, educational level, occupation to mention but a few. It is
therefore, evident that students’ performance is contingent on the stimulus the
home offers.
Educational
upbringing is not unconnected with the family influence of a child. Individual
members of the family serve as a model to the child as he/ she copies from each
of them. Eyake (1997) quoted. Adeyeme (1977) if the house fails to provide the
child with the necessary equipments to fit him/ her into his proper place in
the society and guided properly for his/ her future career, then the child is
damaged. An analysis of the percentage of secondary school dropout today
entails that such students are usually from broken homes, wiring polygamous
family or with other socially related problems.
The
agrarian and large families have accounted for the polygamous life of people.
The large the size of the family, the more economic and other social
responsibilities the parents bring upon themselves. And more often than not,
the educational performance of students from such family suffer serious
setback. This is because such parents might not be able to afford the cost
funding education for the children.
Other
factors may affect the education performance of students like separation on
grounds of different working station, divorce or even natural death can bring
adverse effect on the growth and development of a child.
Furthermore,
economic position of parents is one of major factors that can influence greatly
the educational upbringing of a child. In most families, either or none of
parents may be earning income sufficient enough to sustain the family, faced
with malnutrition and other emotional and psychological effects, the mental
development of the child would be
greatly retarded. Orhunger (1990) adds that a low income family with plenty of
feeding problems may produce children who physical and mental development poses
real challenges to the schools effort at optimum development of the child.
This
research work is therefore intended to explore the degree to which these
factors influence the educational performance of students with a view to making
useful suggestions that would help in checking the system.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
Societies
all over the world strive to achieve quantitative education for her citizenry.
In order to achieve this noble course, so many factors must be put into
consideration. Among them is the family background of the child. The family has
a great role to play on the overall development of the child and his
educational upbringing in particular.
The
gap in performance between students and academic excellence constitute a great
source of worry and serious concern as well as discomfiture to both parents,
schools mangers, policy makers and various governments responsible for the
education of students’ in secondary school schools.
Experience
has shown that among the secondary school students’ there exist some
differences which influence students academic performance, such as some
students’ being able to pay their school fees promptly, while others
were often sent away for nonpayment of school fees, some students
have problem with the provision of
school uniform but others do not. Likewise, some students were motivated by
their parents through the provision of educational materials like text books
and exercise books, others were not, where as some students’ come to school
properly feed, others not. One then wonders whether influence of family
background had played a in these issues.
In
the light of this, the main problem of this search is to find out if there
exist in Osogbo Osun State a relationship between family background and the
students’ academic performance.
1.2 Purpose of the Study
There
is no gain for any country whose educational planners and policy makers stands
and watch the falling standard and steady decline of education at a given rate.
They must identify the causes for such decline with a view of proffering
solution to them.
This
research work is set to accomplish the following objectives;
i.
To investigate into the effect of family
background on the educational performance of students’.
ii.
To find out if social-economic status of
parents has effect on their students’ academic performance.
iii.
To find out whether educational
attainment of parent affect their students’ academic performance.
iv.
To find out the effect of family size on
educational upbringing of students.
1.4 Research Questions
For
the purpose of this research work the following research questions have been
formulated;
[a]
Do parents socio-economic status has effect on the academic performance of the
students?
(b)
Is there any effect of family size on
the academic performance of physics students?
1.5 Hypotheses
The
following hypotheses will be tested to guide this study;
(a)
The socio-economic status of parents has
no significant effect on the academic performance of students.
(b)
There is no significant effect between family size and the academic performance
of students.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The
work of this nature when completed may help the parents to be aware of the
effect the family has on children and how such affect the child positively or
negatively in relation to their academic performance. From the available
recommendations, they will be able to adopt measures of bringing up there in
such a way that they will perform well academically.
Similarly,
it is likely to encourage parents to make their children relatively comfortable
in schools. This study also could aid children of various families to be aware
and bear in mind with their parents in ability to provide them with all the
necessary requirements in schools, and also sympathize with them in family
problems and situations.
More
so, educational and curriculum planners could be guided in planning the
curriculum without rigidity to suit diverse cultural environments. In addition,
the teachers would be aware that a cordial teacher parent relationship may in a
way improve the influence of family background on the academic performance of a
child in school.
The
research of this nature is likely to help the state, nation and the world in
general benefit from as adherence to the recommendations and implementation
will help produce youths who would be better leaders of tomorrow.
Finally,
the research when completed may add to available literature and may encourage
further research on the topic.
1.7 Scope of the Study
It
would be much demanding to undertake a complete study of the effects of family
background on the academic performance of students in all the secondary schools
are scattered all over the local government area and due to logistics
constraint on the researcher, only five schools will be sampled, sampled
schools are selected based on their metropolitan population characteristics.
The
study is likely to be confined to senior secondary school (ss1) students of the
selected schools. This is because (ss1) is the beginning of senior secondary
school class. If family background affects students in (ss1), it is assumed
that likely to affect their performances in senior secondary school certificates
examinations and even worst in their higher academic performance.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
As
words may mean differently in different contexts, the following definitions are
given as the words used as intended to be understood for the purpose of this
study.
FAMILY: Is
a unit comprising of husband, wife and children.
FAMILY SIZE: The
number of people in the family.
FAMILY SYSTEM:
This includes monogamy and may be nuclear or extended family.
HOME ENVIRONMENT: This
refers to parental experience and aspirations for children, objects and
material conditions in the home for comfort and also specific behavioral
processes conducive to learning.
EDUCATIONAL UPBRINGING: This
refers to education of children and how they perform in academics when subjected
to test or examination.
EDUCATIONAL STATUS:
This term is used for social processes in which one achieve social competence
and individual growth, carried on in a selected, controlled sitting which can
be institutionalized as a school or college.
OCCUPATIONAL STATUS: Person’s
trade, vocation or principal means of earning living.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS: This
refers to position of recognition which one finds him in the society. Such a
position may not be hereditary but acquired through personal efforts like
education, wealth, occupation and social class.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE:
This refers to the students’ achievement, scores within the class and his
position relative to all those subjected the same test.
EFFECTS: the
result or outcome of anything be it positive or negative.
HOME SITUATION:
This refers to prevailing atmosphere in the home whether violent, resentful or
in disarray.
PARENTAL ATTITUDE:
Parents disposition to respond in a characteristics way to some stimulus in
their social environment. Some responses determine the way and manner their children
are brought up by them.
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