ABSTRACT: This research on Home Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in secondary schools was conducted in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area. Three research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher to guide the study. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of this study consisted of all agricultural science students from SS1 classes in the study area. One hundred and twenty students were randomly selected from is secondary schools and used in the study. Agricultural Science Achievement Test (ASAT) was the main instrument used for data collection. The data generated from the instrument were analyzed using independent t-test statistic.
Home Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science
The result revealed that; Agric science students from the educated homes performed significantly better than those of the uneducated background. In the same vein, students of the democratic homes performed significantly better than those of autocratic homes. The students from the rich homes performed significantly better academically than those from the poor parental background. It was therefore recommended that parents should be encouraged to improve their literacy level so as to enhance their children’s academic achievement in schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The academic performance of any child cannot be separated from the home environment in which the child grows up. Healthy home background offers emotional security to child (Agholor, 2005). The investigating that has adopted refined measure of family influence on child home tended to show that they are related more strongly to academic outcome than global measure of family background. The impact of home environment in agricultural science subject in school, is today receiving wide acknowledgement in many educational circles within the globes. The attention in this factor is receiving its globes. The attention in this factor is receiving its tends credence to this point of view that, influence the home environment, has on the child learning.
Asanga, (2006) observed that , the home environment and parent occupy the most important position in child’s educational environment and whatever he could make out in the same way. Akinboye(1996) traced this view from the time the child is born into the family and felt that the tone of the child’s mother or child’s father interaction and the style of discipline in the family may have effect on the learning rate of the child in agricultural science.
A research on the academic achievement studies revealed that various variable have been identified as correlates of academic achievement of senior secondary school students in agricultural science (Kutniks and Layne,(2008). Research has also suggested that academic performance of students can be predicted through creativity, testing (Hirch and Peterson, (2008).
Moreover, studies conducted on home environment in today’s modern society expect every one to be a high achiever. The key criteria to judge one’s true potentialities and capabilities are perhaps scholastic, academic achievement. Academic performance has become an index of a child’s future. Therefore, it is putting a great pressure on the mind of children and their parents. The scholastic achievement is a function of acquisition and non- cognitive aspect of personality and is the resultant of various factors like personal, social, economic and other environmental factors. Research studies have proved that a good supportive environment in home, school and neighborhood could enhance a child’s scholastic achievement.
Family being the first and major agency of socialization has great influence and bearing on the development of the child. It has been shown by various studies that most of the children who are successful/great achievers and well adjusted came from the families where sustaining whole some relationship exist. So it is the home which set the pattern for the child’s attitude towards people and society, aids intellectual growth in the child and supports his aspirations and achievement. A highly significant positive relationship between the variables, academic achievement and family score has been assessed Shaha and Shama (2007).
An ordinary observation suggests that home environment has a great deal of changing influence either positive or negative on academic performance of students. And as such parents play the most important roles as one of the powerful determinants in educational progress among students which may leads to success or failure, it can no longer be disputed that home involvement enhances the learning experience of the student. Home environment can create conditions, such as forces and external stimuli that affect the individual cognitive development.
Bloom (2003) opined that, learning goes on in both the home and the school and it is of significant different between these two institutions that explains much of the learning success of some students and the failure of other students. The important duty of the parents at this point is to ascertain the home and if possible improve and co-ordinate the school activities so that they can function together to achieve maximum learning experience and help to eliminate or reduce any negative impact.
In this capacity parents can serve as facilitators by creating a bridge between two cultures that will impact ultimate success or failure of the students in their academic performance in agricultural science in senior secondary schools. It is therefore upon this background that the researcher intends to investigate ways in which these home variables could influence student’s academic performance in agricultural science. Recommendations ions are expected to serve as a solution to the issue of poor academic performance on the teaching and learning of agricultural science with regards to senior secondary schools in the study area.
Home Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The main problem that attracted the attention of the researcher is the issue of poor academic performance in the study area. Many of these problems among others are parental income, parental educational background, unconducive environment, parenting style of parents of socio-economic status of parents, inadequate facilities for learning etc. Actually, the education standard in Nigeria has fallen greatly compared to that of the past blame the parents for refusing to provide their wards with the required school materials that would have enhanced effective learning of agricultural science.
Consequently, upon the observed deterioration or trend in the academic performance, attitude and values of secondary schools one wonders if the failure rate is caused by home background of parents and parenting style may be the cause of such poor performance of students in schools, since it is believed that a god foundation for education starts from the home. However, owning to the poor results of Nigerian candidates almost every year, the researcher seeks to ascertain whether home variable is one of the contributory factors that influence the academic performance of students in agricultural science.
