TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LISTS OF TABLE viii
LISTS OF APPENDICES ix
Abstract x
CHAPTER ONE 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the problem 5
1.3 Purpose of the Study 6
1.4 Research Questions 7
1.5 Statement of Hypotheses 7
1.6 Significance of the Study 8
1.7 Scope of the study 8
1.8 Limitations of the Study 9
1.9 Definition of Terms 9
CHAPTER TWO 10
LITERATURE REVIEW 10
2.1 Theoretical Review 10
2.2 Conceptual Review 13
2.3 Empirical Review 18
2.4 Summary of Literature Review 21
CHAPTER THREE 22
RESEARCH METHOD 22
3.2 Area of Study 22
3.3 Population of the Study 23
3.4 Sample and Sampling Technique 23
3.5 Instrumentation 23
3.5.1 Validation of the Instrument 24
3.5.2 Reliability of Instrument 24
3.6 Procedure for Data Collection 24
3.7 Method of Data Analysis 25
CHAPTER FOUR 26
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 26
4.1 Answering the Research Questions 26
4.2 Testing the Hypotheses 28
4.3 Summary of Findings 31
4.4 Discussion of Findings 32
CHAPTER FIVE 34
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 34
5.1 Summary 34
5.2 Educational implication of the findings 35
5.3 Conclusion 35
5.4 Recommendations 35
5.5 Limitations of the study 36
5.6 Suggestions for further research 36
REFERENCES 37
APPENDICES 40
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Education is the systematic training of individual in order to bring about positive change in behavior, so as to become fulfilled citizens (Angelo, 2008), it is a legacy parents can give their children. It is a known fact that children are the leaders of tomorrow therefore, it is the fundamental responsibility of government to provide for the education of the students for national growth and developments. Biology is a very important science subject and stands as the bedrock upon which are based many other science courses like Medicine, Pharmacy, Biochemistry, Genetics etc that are of great importance to a nation (Araoye, 2009). Besides the importance of Biology to mankind as a science of life, it is one of the science subjects mostly preferred by students in the secondary schools because it has less mathematical calculations unlike Physics and Chemistry.
Socioeconomic status encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security and subjective perceptions of social status and social class, work experience and of an individual’s of family ’economic and social position in relation to others. Based on household income earners education and location are examined. Mahmmud (2010), cultural heritage and values are transmitted from one Socio-economic status is often measured as a combination of education, location, income and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as the social status or class of an individual or group. Low socio-economic status and its correlates, such as lower education, poverty and poor health, ultimately affect our societies as a whole. Research indicates that children from low social economic status households develop academic skills more slowly compare to children from higher socio-economic status group.
Aiken and Barbarin (2008) noted that, the school system in low social economic status communities are often under resourced and have negatively affected student’s academic progress. Families from low social economic status are less likely to have the financial resource or time available to provide children with academic support from generation to another through education. The responsibility of training a child always lies in the hand of the parents. This is congruent with the common assertion by sociologist that education can be an instrument of cultural change which is being taught from home. It is then generally believed that socio-economic background of the parent has direct impact on the academic performance of the students.
Researchers such as Inyang (2006), Effiong (2008) and Joseph (2011) have proved that most of the students portray certain level of academic traits or potential which are traceable to their background. Some parents believe and trust in the school as an avenue for improving or influencing the academic performance of students. In this study, student’s background variables were measured in terms of parent’s educational level, occupation and location.
Parent’s educational level refers to the academic attainment of the parents (father and mother) which could be formal (O’level to Tertiary Education) or informal. Parents are child’s first contact when a child is born; these people play significant roles in determining the inert characteristics of the child. They are the first teachers and agents of socialization of the children. On this note parent’s educational level becomes an important factor to have a positive relationship with students academic performance. Some parents are formally educated, Formal education involves education carried out in schools while non-formal is any organized educational activity that takes place outside the conventional school system with no specific target group such as; carpentry, mechanics, tailoring, shoe mending, blacksmitting etc, Inyang (2011). According to Percus(2011), the relationship between parental education and student’s academic performance in science has been widely reported that students from educated parents perform better than those with low education. Children whose parents have attained higher qualifications such as; B.Sc/ B.Ed.post-graduates may likely want their children to study hard to become Master’s degree or Ph.D degree holders as well Coon(2011), asserted that educated parents send their children earlier to schools than uneducated parents. Similarly educationally advantaged families are expected to produce and motivate study conscious children than uneducated ones.
The location or home environment of the students plays an important role in their academic performance. Students who reside in urban areas may likely exhibit higher educational attainment then their counterpart in the rural areas. This view is supported by Uko (2004), who sees human performance as dynamic and subjects to changes with respect to circumstances and environment. Byoung (2012), stated that students need safe, healthy and stimulating environment in which they grow and learn at home. According to Enang (2012), the actions and how people behave depends on who the people stay with and where they stay; since the development of the child is determined by the environment and the biological makeup of the child. This condition therefore requires careful planning and arrangement of educational related activities at home such as home lessons to optimize experiences that support learning. This implies that supportive and favorable home environment enriched with enough facilities and favorable climate can encourage learning, make students more comfortable, concentrated on their academic activities resulting in high academic performance. A proper and adequate learning environment is very necessary for a meaningful learning.
Another suggested factor is the issue of occupation of the parents. Occupation in this context refers to different kinds of jobs. Werner (2007), Some of the prestigious occupations are doctors, law, engineers professors etc are grouped into high socio economic status . Others that do not fall into this category could be lower ranking jobs like laborers, messenger, janitors, bartenders, fishermen, herdsmen, farmers etc , they therefore offer significant lower charges that may not meet the smooth running of them as such reduces the academic performance of the students Milne (2006),opined that the parents occupation best represent as a socio economic factor and thus affects student’s performance.
Barrow and Mogaka (2007) posited that economic investment opportunities in such areas are mainly limited to herding and small -scale retail trade. Poor communication networks, low literate communities, lack of social role models and limitations of basic school resources are some of the challenges facing learners and general inhabitants in this region (Gok, 2007).
Learning environment that is free of barrier or obstacle or distraction such as noise, gas/smoke pollutions and so on can constitute health hazards, which in turn affect or reduce student’s concentration or perceptual focus to learning. Market and garages located near schools have always posed a threat to student. Noise and pollution from these sources have always endangered student’s life and concentration. Other factors according to Danes (2004), including complementing environment and socio-economic factors to produce high academic achievement and performance include good teaching, counseling, good administration, and good seating arrangement. It has also been proved that student that come from simulative environment with laboratory equipment or those that are taught with rich instructional aides, picture and allowed to demonstrate using their functional nerves likes eyes, hands and sense of test perform better than those trained under theoretical and canopy of abstraction. Thus teaching and learning should be done under organized, planned and fortified environmental with instructional aides to stimulate student’s sense of conception, and concentration to facilitate systematic understanding and acquisition of knowledge.
Heyneman (2005) stated that for many years it has been shown that students from low socioeconomic background do not show effective performance in school. It is globally suggested that social status is the key factor in academic performance, but this is not necessarily true. There are many other factors, including but not limited to subject, student age, and gender. Heyneman concluded that important solution is the integration of the social classes among schools.
The parents or family provides the initial social encounter through socialization process, provides the three model, with which the child can identify ,usually a child may consciously or unconsciously learn from the parents by imitation. Therefore the socio-economic status of parents goes a way to mould a child’s personality both morally, academically, economically, socially, spiritually or otherwise. Jacquelynm, Eccles and Daviskean (2005),noted that socio-economic of a child is most commonly determined by combining parents educational level, occupational status, residential location, studies have repeatedly shown that socio- economic background affects students outcome. It is against this background that this work is being undertaken to empirically investigate the possible influence of these factors on student’s academic achievement in selected public secondary schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government in Akwa Ibom State
1.2 Statement of the problem
Poor academic performance of students has been of great concern to educationists, and guidance counselors in the secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. Despite all guidance and counseling strategies mounted in schools to improve students’ academic performance, poor performance is still recorded yearly. Observation and report from examination bodies like West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) , and Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) between 2013 and 2018 showed a continuous decline in students overall performance in school certificate examinations. Also, during teaching practice in one of the schools in Mkpat Enin the researcher observed the poor academic performance both in continuous assessment and previous results all owing to. This performance is likely to be due to poor economic background that reflected in lack of instructional materials .Although, some students were motivated by their parent through the provision of educational materials like text books, exercise books, computer (desktop, laptops etc) and others were not. In the light of this, this research was designed to examine the influence of socio-economic status of parents and students academic performance.
Factors such as inadequate school facilities, cultural factors and inadequate teachers among others as the possible causes of poor academic performance in Mkpat Enin but, parents’ socio-economic status is hardly mentioned. This study was therefore carried out to examine the influence of socio-economic background students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government.
