ABSTRACT: The study investigated Parental Motivations and Students’ Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study consisted of all the senior secondary one (SS1) students which were about 1,676. The sample size was two hundred (200) secondary one (SS1) students. A twenty (20) items Economics Achievement Test (EAT) was the main instrument use for data collection. A survey research design was employed in the study.
Parental Motivations and Students’ Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools
The findings of the study revealed that: parents’ educational background, parental income and parenting style adopted by parents has power to motivate the academic performance of students in Economics. It was therefore recommended that parents should apply reward as a motivational factor to improve the academic performance of their children in Economics.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The principal actors in every home are the parents. For this reason, the attitude of the parents at home towards the education of their children will greatly influence the performance of these children in school. It is apparent that the subject of economics is much accepted to the generality of students, irrespective of them being in the humanities (Arts) or sciences. Economics as a subject of discipline seems to be a basic entry requirement for admission in most management and social science courses in our tertiary institutions. This means that economics is the root from which business/management and all management related disciplines, such as insurance, accounting, purchasing and supply, marketing, personnel, just to mention a view, derive their existence from. Thus, the position of economics as the centre point in resource management training equally demands that the relevant motivation is considered to be a strong ingredient for better academic performance of students.
An investigation on parental motivation and student’s performance, has revealed that parents who interact with their children at home in a variety of ways show interest in what they do or say tend to encourage their children towards better results at school. On the other hand, children whose parents show little or no attitude or attention to their studies at home, do not motivate and encourage better academic performance in most subjects which economics is included.
It is observed that some parents shift their responsibilities to teachers in the school or evening lesson teachers because they are too busy to employ the natural setting such as meals time, and table talks through which they can interact with children. Such interactions encourage and give the parents opportunity to know how well the children are disposed towards education.
When parents do not motivate their children at home, they may become tired to the extent that they will not be able to do anything after schools-school work. Such children are known to sleep always in class while lessons are going on. The home environment contributes to effective attainment of educational goals and objectives. For example literate parents supervise their children work and even teach them at home and they provide opportunity for correction of wrong attitude they posses outside the school environment.
The necessary educational materials which promote learning and subsequently better performance will be made available with ease to the children. Parent from higher socio-economic status families have higher expectation from their children than those from lower socio-economic status. This is confirmed by the fact that educational facilities in higher socio-economic families, parental pressure and assistance could help children to develop high achievement motivation and study habits.
Meanwhile, given the background, this study was conducted to substantiate the above divergent claims by determining the underlying influence of parental motivations and academic performance of students in Economics secondary school, in Abak Local Government Area.
Parental Motivations and Students’ Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The problem of this study is low academic performance of economic students in both internal and external examination in selected secondary schools. Based on this, there is need to investigate the relationship between parental motivation which is one of the family variables that determines academic performance of students in secondary schools in our own environment.
However, the central problem confronting educational organization in Akwa Ibom State and Nigeria as a whole is the ability to achieve stated goals in the learners through provision of educational facilities and motivation by parents. Most studies suggest that parental motivational variable typically translate to gains in students’ academic performance. Such variable include; parental educational level, parental socio-economic status, parental occupation among others.
When all these mentioned variables are not there, there is a reduction in optimum performance on the students thus less achievement. Low level of students’ performance and achievements may not result from the students ability and capacity to perform. But may be directly connected to the parental motivation. Since motivation is seen to be a crucial factor in the learning process, the study therefore helps to find out the extent to which parental motivation influence academic performance of students in Economics in Abak Local Government Area.