ABSTRACT
This project was designed to research into the family background on the academic performance of children in selected schools in Kwara State. In doing this, two research questions were stated and some basic assumptions made. A sample of one hundred students was drawn out of five selected schools; the research instrument used was the questionnaires while the data analysis involved the use of the research questions.
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 pupils, 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 pupils 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.
