EFFECT OF SOCIO ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF ADOLESCENT STUDENTS ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL (ECONOMICS PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Education has been defined as the process of teaching, training and learning to improve knowledge and develop skills, attitude and moral. It prepares a person’s ability for future benefits in life if properly channeled. In other words, education helps a person to develop his talents fully, prepares him to be a responsible citizen and gives him the stimulus and opportunity for cultural enrichment of his life. Upon his background, it becomes pertinent to investigate the effect of socio-economic background of adolescents students in their senior secondary school certificate examination. The major goal of education therefore is to ensure proper development of the child, such that he can fit-in and function in the society. Since education starts from birth to death, it occupies an important place in the life of every individual and the academic performance of the school child as a function of how well a child is doing ion school. Malluw and Haggi (2000) stated that academic performance is the measure of the level of knowledge skills, attitudes and aptitude of a child in an examination. Since the family is the cradle of every life, a child that is nurtured in environment (family) which socially and academically non stimulating would make the child intelligent quotient to be low. Over the years, inspite of the efforts of students in their academic study, the academic performance of students in senior-secondary school certificate examination especially in science and social science subjects is very alarming. Those Onuchukwu (2005) identified has direct relationship with parents socio-economic background. He further stated that students academic achievement depends largely on parents encouragement of private lesson provision of learning aids at home, lovely/mental health, provision of balanced diets and discouragement of exam-malpractice and all these depends on the adolescent socioeconomic background.
According to Ezewu (1983) the socio economic states of a family has been acknowledged to affect positive or negatively the schooling of the higher the socio-economic states of a family the more likely it motivates the child to learn at school and consequently to succeed in learning. He also stated that students from family high class positions in Nigeria such as medical professional, engineers, politicians etc. stand the chance of performing better than those of low class positions. Slavin (1994) reported a study that clearly showed the impact of social class on academic developments. Students from different social class and background achieve quite different during the school years. After a long term holidays, children from poor families lost much of their achievements unlike those from rich family who even gain more due to private teachers employed during and after holidays, provision of leaving and teaching materials. Looking at this study, the researcher’s argument is that the children from poor homes are not exposed to a wide variety of learning experiences in and outside their homes. Onuchukwu (2005) in his study, revealed that no matter how potentially intelligent, that a child need a good and comfortable environment to leave. He maintained that, if the environment is not conducive his intelligent would either be dwarfed or not utilized to its full potentials.
