CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Education instills ideals, trains instincts, and fosters the correct attitude and habits in addition to providing information and abilities. They believe that cultural legacy and values are passed down from generation to generation through education, according to Muhammed (2010). It is always the parents’ obligation to educate their children. This is in line with sociologist’s frequent argument that education may be a tool for cultural change when it is taught at home, which is pertinent in this discussion. It’s not unreasonable to believe that a parent’s socioeconomic status has an impact on their children’s academic performance in school. Whatever influences a child’s developmental stage may have an impact on their schooling or attitude toward it (Meli, 2005). One of these criteria is parental status. When a woman’s nutritional health improves, her young children’s nutrition improves as well. “Parents from various occupational classes frequently have distinct child-rearing approaches, different ways of disciplining their children, and different reactions to their children. These distinctions do not manifest themselves in every family in the same way, but they do impact the average inclinations of families in various occupational classes.” 2004 (Rothestein). According to Hill (2004), a parent’s socioeconomic status affects not only their children’s academic performance, but also their access to good and secondary education, allowing children from low socioeconomic backgrounds to compete with their counterparts from high socioeconomic backgrounds in the same academic environment. Furthermore, Ulvund (2002) claimed that parental socioeconomic position was a strong predictor of intellectual performance at the age of eight years (SES). In a similar line, some studies hypothesized that parental SES may affect school children’s flexibility in adapting to various school schedules (Guerin, 2001). Machebe (2012), in her research, came to the similar conclusion that parents socioeconomic position might impact their children’s academic achievement at school. Oni (2007) said in a prior local study in Nigeria that there is a considerable variation in rates of deviant conduct between pupils from high and poor socioeconomic backgrounds. Another factor that can affect students’ academic performance is their health status, which can be traced back to their parents’ socioeconomic status. Adewale (2002) reported that in a rural community where nutritional status is low and health problems are common, children’s academic performance is severely hampered. This assumption is also dependent on the socioeconomic status of the parents. Furthermore, according to Eze (1996), a child’s capacity to engage with and take full use of the entire complement of resources supplied by a formal learning environment is boosted when they receive sufficient nourishment, health care, and stimulation throughout their pre-school years. Non-school factors such as parental education, child rearing practices, nutrition, health care, and pre-school education, according to the World Bank (2007), have a greater impact on children’s access to education. It also states that positive school factors such as teachers and books have a greater impact in developed countries than in developing countries. As a result, the positive effects of school inputs are often stronger in children from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds than in children from better socioeconomic backgrounds. Poverty is one of the most important factors that might affect the demand for education based on the socioeconomic level of the education system’s clients. Poor households, according to UNICEF (2004), are trapped in a poverty cycle and lack the capability and resources to buy proper and balanced meals, resulting in their inability to pay for their children’s education. As poverty levels grow, children’s labor becomes increasingly important for family survival (Abagi, 1997). In both rural and urban areas, child labor is increasingly used in household services, agriculture, and petty trade, and children themselves must consider the opportunity cost of schooling in some circumstances. As a result, parents have continued to send their children to work, primarily as domestic workers in metropolitan areas.
1.2Â Â Â Â STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It is impossible to overstate the importance of parental engagement in their children’s education. Parents have an important role in modeling their children’s behavior, enabling good communication between them and secondary school, and recognizing crucial needs in terms of their children’s academic demands (Smith, 2001). Student learning and behavior, like that of adults, is influenced by a variety of interrelated factors, some of which are internal to the learner and others which may be attributed to the environment and government laws. The purpose of schooling is to give fair access to children of school age, ensuring that all students get an education (Moest, 2003). In many underdeveloped nations, such as Nigeria, school attendance is low, and education has been considered as a precious resource (Murungi, 2006). This is primarily due to the socioeconomic status of the parents; however, the problem of low secondary education access is worth investigating because the lives of many students are at risk of being wasted; thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the impact of parents’ socioeconomic factors on their children’s secondary education access.
