ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study was to investigate family background variables such as; family size, parents’ educational status and occupation as a predictor of achievement motivation and self efficacy belief of primary school pupils in Enugu Education zone of Enugu State Nigeria. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The study used correlation research design. The population of the study comprised 6905 primary five pupils. Multi stage sampling techniques was used to select 287 respondents. Two self-developed instruments titled Achievement Motivation scale (AMS) and Pupils Self-Efficacy Belief Scale (PSBS) were used for data collection. To ensure the validity of the instrument, the instrument was face validated by three experts, two from the Department of educational foundations and one from Science Education Department. The data generated from the trial testing were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha statistics and the overall reliability index of 0.77 and 0.86 were obtained. Pearson moment correlation was used to answer the research questions while the null hypotheses were analysed using regression at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that number of children is the family, parents’ educational status and parents’ occupation is not a predictor of achievement motivation of primary school pupils in Enugu education Zone. The findings further showed that parents occupation is a predictor of primary pupils self efficacy belief. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made which include꞉ that the need for policy aimed at creating general awareness among stakeholders in educational enterprise about the importance of training teachers, parents and students for achievement motivation and self –efficacy belief of the pupils since such training may facilitate students’ achievement motivation and self –efficacy belief.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The basic social unit of every group is the family. Family is a universal institution bounded together by social and biological ties. Onyemerekaya, (2002) sees family as a system organized around the support, nurturance and socialization of its members. In the same vein, (Denzin, 2008) conceived the family as a unit of interacting personalities living in a symbiotic manner, which is made up of parents and children, where parents are responsible for the psychological, social, educational and economic welfare of their children; while children in like manner are responsible for good behaviour within and outside the home. The family has the potential to influence a child’s academic achievement. This is because it is the first environment of the child. The initial experience that would mould the child’s values, aspirations, emotions, interest and attitudes are offered by the parents/family (Okeke, 2009). What the child learns at home and how his family motivates him towards education contributes to the child’s success in school (Essien, 2002). Similarly, Obasi (1999) observed that mere making sure that the children are prepared for school in the morning is important for the children’s successful achievement at school especially in primary school.
Primary education is the first level of education where most Nigerian children come in contact with formal education and foundation for success of other levels of education after the family (NPE, 2004). Primary education plays a crucial formative role in the survival of the whole educational system. The National Policy on Education (2004) refers to the education at this level as the education given in institutions for children aged 6 to 11 plus. The document added that since the rest of the education system is built upon it, the primary level is the key to the success or failure of the whole system.
According to National Policy on Education (NPE, 2004), the main goals and objectives of primary education are to:
- Inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and ability to communicate effectively;
- Lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking; give citizenship education as a basis for effective participation in and contribution to the life of the society;
- Mould the character and develop sound attitude and morals in the child; develop in the child the ability to adapt in the child’s changing environment;
- Give the child opportunities for developing manipulative skills that will enable the child function effectively in the society within the limit of the child’s capacity; and
- Provide the child with basic tools for further educational advancement, including preparation for trades and crafts of the locality.
However, in spite of the objectives of primary education in the survival of the whole educational system and national development, the achievements of pupils in internal examinations and the transition examination into junior secondary schools in Enugu Education zone of Enugu State in the past four years (2010-2014) have been declining steadily. Although many factors may be responsible for the poor academic performance of students in primary school level, but Hassan (2008) examined the causes of poor academic performance among school students. Some of the factors identified are poor study habit, achievement motivation, low self esteem and self efficacy, low socio-economic status of the family which includes the family background.
Family background has been and remains an important variable in education to explain variance in students’ academic achievement (White, Reynolds, Thomas & Gitzlaff 1993; Sirin 2005). The question of how students’ family background influences achievement is often seen as an issue of equality, and believed to be of high importance. Family background is a collective terminology comprising of social class/status, economic status, family size, family structure, parents’ educational level and occupation among other factors pertaining to family life. Family background plays an important role in successful school outcomes. According to Astone and McLanahan (1991), a variety of family features including structure, socioeconomic status, parental school involvement, parental relationship quality, and parental school aspirations have been found to predict academic achievement. Family background in the context of this present study refers to family size, parents’ occupation and parents’ level of education.
Family size is one of the factors that affect the academic performance of students. According to Kalu (1980), children in large families feels frustrated as a result of lack of child parental interaction, and parental care, they lose hope of higher attainments in life or getting the better things of life and lower interest for probable educational achievement or schooling. Duvall (1977) also notes that children who come from small families are more likely to adopt adult values and attitudes than those who came from larger families. Thompson (1957) in his study, points out that parents who have fewer children tends to adopts more time and attention to each individual child, they may also tends to expect more from each child than to parents who have many children.
Harris (1989) argued that in a plural family, the two or three children are faced with the responsibility of upbringing of their younger brothers and sisters; this could hamper their academic pursuit. Daramola (1994) attributed the downward trend in the academic achievement of secondary schools students to the students’ background that is, the type of home environment where the child is raised. They stressed of the environmental condition and the nature of social interaction that goes on in the family may have some positive or negative influence on the academic achievement of a child. Daramola (1994) further stated that the factors affecting a child’s educational achievement include the occupational status of the patents, the attitude of parents to their children’s education and the values transmitted by the parents.
According to Smith (2000), the family being the primary institution of the child to reason abstractly and adversely the academic pursuance or hope of the child is affected and later becomes failure to the family and society as a whole. Individual differences between students in the school may sometimes be due to family size of the learner. Hence the teachers effort to understand each child family background through constant meeting with parent so that the child education becomes successfully. Furthermore, Rubin (1973) in his study points out that it is the home and not the school that exerts the real prime and lasting influence on the child character and asserts that if there are deprivation at home materials, mental or spiritual. In another study, Sigelo (1980) assume that in this time with increased education and cost of living, large family is no longer desirable. The author is also of the view that children who range from 2-3 tends to be intelligent in few family size than children from larger families of about fifteen to twenty children. This is so because socio-economic and other educational factors enjoyed by the smaller families are often deprived by children from the larger homes. Hence he reported that there is a correlation between family size and intelligent. It is also importance to investigate the family size as predictor of academic achievement in our primary school pupils so as to join in the debate and argument of the previous researchers.
Moreover, the level of educational attainment of parents could influence the academic achievement of their children. According to European Union Monitoring Report (2013), those students whose parents have a tertiary level of education perform, on average, significantly better in tests of science, reading and mathematical ability than those whose parents have only basic schooling. In a family where both the father and mother are educated, their children are always taken good care of in their academic activities. Such parents know the importance of getting educational materials for their children is school. They may go through their children’s exercise books after school, or even employ a private teacher to teach them after school. Literate parents have interest in their children’s academic performance and struggle to provide them with needed materials and give adequate encouragement. Having known the importance of education, they draw a reading time-table for their children and also arrange for part-time teachers to teach their children and check their workbooks from time to time. They provide adequate motivation and reward when the children perform better in class assignments tests and examinations. Taking care of children and making provision for their needs, especially educational needs. By so doing, their academic performance will be improved; whereas in the case of illiterate family, the need to supervise the children’s exercise books is not there, hence their children’s low academic performance in school is recorded (Alokan, Osakinle & Onijingin, 2013). David (2007) opined that textbooks aid studies after normal school teaching. Students from illiterate parents lack assistance because of parents’ illiteracy and ignorance such parents fail to motivate, reinforce, give reward or punish their children on their academic performance which might have forced them to be serious in learning. Educated parents may also have library at home, stocked with novels, encyclopaedia and other educational books and educational audio visual tapes. When children make use of these materials, it will enhance their intellect.
