Abstract: The study examined the Influence Of Home Background On Academic Performance Of Pupil In Primary Schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated in line with the specific objectives to guide the study. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of all primary five pupils in twenty nine (29) primary schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area. A sample size of 200 pupils was drawn from ten (10) schools for the study using stratified sampling technique. Two instruments were used for data collection- a questionnaire and Basic science Achievement Test. The questionnaire was used to find out the home variables of the pupils while the Achievement Test was used to examine the academic performance of the pupils.
The data collected were analyzed using independent t-test statistics. The results showed that the income level of parents, educational level and occupational level of parents influences the academic performance of pupils. It was recommended among others that Government should provide more equipped adult education centres for retraining of lowly educated and willing parents. Government should re-enforce the ‘free and compulsory’ education policy to enable the less privilege families send their wards to school.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Home is the first and the most significant place for the child’s inclusive growth and development, and it varies in many aspects such as the parents’ level of education, economic status, occupational status, religious background, values, interests, parents’ expectation for their children, and family size among others. Children coming from different home environments are affected differently by such variations (Ogoye, 2007). And as such, the parent at home provides not only the hereditary transmission of basic potentials for the child but also the favourable environment in terms of interpersonal relation and cultural pattern.
The role of home environment in the upbringing of the child cannot be overemphasized and as such its economic status, educational background and family size among others is of vital importance (Jime, 2001). Pupils have shown that the type of home a child comes from manifests itself in parental values and experience, education, vocation/profession of parents, religion and socio-economic background of parents. Parental economic status and intelligence have either facilitating or inhibitory influence on the pupils depending on the traits inherited or the environment in which he is brought up. The parents provides the initial social encounter through socialization process, also provides the models with which the child can identify, consciously or unconsciously, learn from the parents by imitation. Parental set standard may greatly affect the lives of adolescents and so motivate them to be achievement oriented. Thus parents with some particular careers are of great priority tend to orient its children in achieving that goal.
Influence Of Home Background On Academic Performance Of Pupil In Primary Schools
Home variables according to Bling (2012), are those qualities in a family that are subject to change or varies; they include all the human and material resources present at the home that may affect the child’s up bringing as well as their academic outcome, such as the parent’s level of education, their occupation, socio-economic status, parenting style, marital status, broken homes and socializing facilities available in the such family. Thus, the home is the basic institution for providing the child’s primary socialization and laying the educational foundation for the child upon which other agents of socialization are built. The education received by a child from parents at home is most likely to house highly significant and dominant effects on the behaviours of the child later in life. What the child learns at home and how his/her family motivates him/her towards education contributes to the child success of every individual.
The socio-economic status of parents is capable of affecting the behaviour of the children and determines their aspiration. Parents with high socio-economic status often have more success in preparing their children for school because they typically have access to wide range of providing their children with high quality child-care, books and encourage the children in various learning activities at home. They also have easy access to information regarding their children’s health, as well as social, emotional and cognitive development (Ojo and Yilma 2010). The authors also noted that in all socio-economic groups, parents face major challenges when it comes to providing optimal care and education for their children and these challenges are more pronounced in poor families. This, according to them, is because sometimes, when the basic necessities are lacking, parents must place top priority on housing, food, clothing and health care, regarding education materials and books as luxuries. They added that poor families may also have inadequate or limited access to community resources that promote and support children’s development and school readiness. They further asserted that these disadvantages can negatively affect families’ decisions regarding their children development and learning.
Parents’ education is another home factor which influences the academic performance of pupils. Pupils under motivated condition, exhibits purposeful behaviour aimed at achieving Research shows the supportive and attentive parenting practices positively affect academic achievement (Eamon, 2005). In addition, high parental aspirations have been associated with increasing pupils’ interest in education (Majoribanks, 2005). The effect of parental motivation and involvement in their children’s school has on academic achievement is less clear (Domina 2005), parental motivation and involvement in school has been linked to both positive and negative influences on academic achievement (McNeal, 2001, Domina, 2005). Explanations for this discrepancy are not conclusive. It is thought that the type of involvement and motivation may make a difference and that in some cases parents become involved after their child has already had academic difficulties (Domina, 2005, McNeal, 2001). Other recent research has found more conclusively that while parental motivation may not help academic achievement, it does help prevent behaviorual problems (Domina, 2005).
Parental occupation is also an important family background variable. The occupation of one’s parents may determine to a large extent one’s opportunity to attend school or not. Ezeji (2001) noted that parents like their children to take to their occupation, like parents who are lawyers, doctors, musicians among others. Examples of such people in the country include Gani faweiheni, the prominent human right lawyer, Oliver Akalite (Oliver De coque), Fela Kuti and Osita Osadebe who were famous musicians each of these great men had one or more of his children in his type of occupation. Uwaoma (2006) asserted that most vocational pupils were children whose parents were farmer or craftsmen. In Nigeria most children whose parents cannot afford to pay for high cost of formal education enroll into apprenticeship programmes such as carpentry, brick laying, petty trading and others.
Influence Of Home Background On Academic Performance Of Pupil In Primary Schools
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Generally, in the phase of educational system, success is measured by the learners’ performance or how well a child meets the standard set out by educational institution. The menace of failure among the young school pupils has stared the parent’s, government and other stakeholders in the face. There is a consensus of opinion about the fallen standard of education as a problem that is hindering the posterity of the Nigerian nation in terms of quality man-power resources. Most pupils in primary schools experience academic problem that manifest itself in the form of poor academic performance mostly in their subject in schools.
The government, parents, teachers and pupils blame one another for pupils’ poor performance in schools. Parents blame teachers for lack of dedication to duties. The teachers blame government for poor salaries hence they are poorly motivated, parents also accuse government for not equipping the schools with learning materials, government blame parents for not doing good home work and the pupils are blamed for lack of discipline and dedication to their studies. It was on this background that the researcher was interested to examine influence of home background on academic performance of pupil in primary schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area.
