Parental Socio-Economic Status And Pupil Academic Performance In Social Studies In Primary Schools

Abstract: This study was designed to investigate Parental Socio-Economic Status and Pupil Academic Performance in Social Studies in Primary Schools. The population of this study consisted of the pupils in all public primary schools in Onna Local Government Area. Numbering up to three thousand six hundred and seventy five (3,675) pupils in primary 5-6 classes constituted the population of the study and the researcher adopted simple random sampling technique in selecting the sample for the study. Two hundred (200) pupils were selected from ten (10) primary schools to form the sample size of the study. The instruments used in the study for data collection was social studies Achievement Test (SSAT). The data generated from the instrument were analyzed using independent t-test statistics.

The results from the analysis revealed that there was a significant influence of parent socio-economic background on academic performance of students in Social Studies. Also student with high socio-economic parent performs academically better than those with low parental socio-economic status. Based on the results, the researcher recommended among others that teachers should understand that teaching is a job of conscience, teachers should handle the learners as their own children; try by all means to meet the learners’ academic, social and psychological needs. With all categories of pupils, this will help bridge deficiencies from negative family background.

 

Parental Socio-Economic Status And Pupil Academic Performance In Social Studies In Primary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The responsibility of training a child always lies in the hands of the parents and education is the best legacy parents can give to their children. It can be viewed as a person’s overall social position to which attainment in both social and economic domain contributes (Aniley, 2005).

The conditions in the family are concerned with or related to the interaction of social and economic factors. Socio-economic status of parents is a total measure of family economic and social position in relations to their income, education and occupation. Indeed, socio-economic status of parents can impact on the academic performance of pupils in schools because the home background of a child is forerunner of the school. Nweke (2002) observed that the actual cause of poor performance of pupils in school is the nature of family background and upbringing of pupils in terms of socio-economic status of parents which give birth to inadequate planning mechanism. As such, academic performance is a measure of learning outcome of a child and it is always qualified in terms of scores obtained in a test or examination (Anene, 2006). It indicates the level of knowledge, skills and ideas acquired through the course of study within and outside the classroom situation.

Academic performance is a measure of school success because of high performance in school open doors to further education and to well-paying job (Freeman, 2014). Authentic academic performance covers individuals’ academic abilities and skills in applying practical abilities (Bourne, 2007).

Hence, socio-economical need status of parents and academic performance of pupils in school are closely related to inadequate performance of pupils in social studies because of parents’ inability to perform or provide pupils the necessary educational materials needed in school. This results in poor academic performance of pupils. As such, it is against this background that this study set out to examine whether parental occupation and income affect academic performance of pupils in social studies in primary schools in Onna Local Government Area.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The gap in performance between pupils and academic excellence in social studies constitute a great source of work and serious concern as well as discomfort to both parents, school administrators, policy makers and various governments responsible for the education of pupils in primary schools. Experience has shown that among the primary schools in Onna Local Government Area, there exists some influence which impact pupils’ academic performance such as lack of funds by the parents to provide educational materials like textbooks, exercise books, etc to their wards, inadequate finance to provide proper feeding for their children.

As observed by Orlunger (2009), low income of the family with an adequate amount of feeding problems may produce children with poor physical and mental development and other problems which include; family size, divorce of marriages among parents, etc. posits real challenges to the schools’ efforts to optimum development of the child.

Therefore, the researcher would examine whether parental socio-economic status influence academic performance of pupils in social studies

in primary schools with particular concern in Onna Local Government Area.

 

1.3   Purpose of the study

The general purpose of this study is to investigate parental socio-economic status and pupil’s academic performance in social studies in primary schools in Onna local government area.

Specifically, the study sought to:

1. Examine the difference in academic performance of pupils from high socio economic background and those from low socio economic background in social studies.
2. Examine the difference in academic performance of pupils from high socio economic background in the urban area and pupils from low socio economic background in rural areas in social studies.

1.4 Research Question

The following research questions were raised to guide the study:

1. What is the difference in academic performance between pupils from high socio economic background and those from low socio economic background in social studies?
2. What is the difference in academic performance between pupils from high socio economic background in the urban areas and pupils from high socio economic background in rural areas?

Parental Socio-Economic Status And Pupil Academic Performance In Social Studies In Primary Schools

 1.5       Research Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.

1. There is no significant difference in academic performance between pupils from high socio economic background and those from low socio economic background in Social studies in onna local govt. area.
2. There is a significant difference between pupils from high socio economic background in the urban areas and those from high socio economic background in the rural areas in Social studies in primary schools.

 

1.6 Significance of the study

The significance of this study is as follows:

1. The study will be of immense benefit to parents as it will sensitize them on the need to provide their wards with the essential educational materials in order to enhance better academic performance.
2. It will help to enlighten and further educate the teachers as a second parent of pupils to create awareness to the parent to see the needs to encourage their wards to learn while at home.
3. It will also help the pupil on their needs to make good use of every learning opportunity provided for them by their parents.

1. It will also enable the government to provide adequate educational facilities that will be benefits for the pupils in order to boast pupil academic performance.

Originally posted on October 12, 2021 @ 1:55 pm