The Influence Of Socio-Economic Status Of Parents On The Academic Performance Of Students
The researcher will devote this chapter towards receiving the finding of the other writers and research work by other people related to influence of socio-economic status of parents on the academic performance of secondary schools and influences will be drawn from them. The researcher based his view mainly on the following sub sections.
Influence of parent’s occupation.
Academic background of parents on their children’s performance in school. Family size and the influence of students’ academic performance.Socio-economic status of parents and its influence on the academic performance of their children.Family structure to academic performance of students.The researcher elaborates these sub-sections one after the other as follows:
INFLUENCE OF PARENTS OCCUPATIONS
Many researchers have come out with the view that parent’s occupation influence students’ attitude toward academic exercise.
Juiian J. (1992) says that when writing on social problems, that the nature of the occupation of the parents (father) tends to affect students’ educational performance or attitude when she pointed out that in every aspect, the poor gets less education than the rich. The children of the rich are likely to spend few years in school, have less chance of graduating from higher institutions and are much less likely than the middle class children who go to higher institutions under their circumstance children of the poor are likely to be taught in overcrowded classroom and with little or no individual attention.
According to Swift “the occupation is responsible for its style. This in turn influences the potential adaptiveness of child to schooling”. Robbins revealed that the proportion of young people who enter full-time higher institution is 45% of those whose parents are in the higher professional class compared with only 40% for those whose parents have unskilled manual occupations.
Ehigie J.O. (2001) viewed occupation as the increase in upward mobility, which has been very largely to changes in the occupational structure that is, the expansion of white collar and professional occupation and the contested of manual, unskilled occupations. He also says that occupation that requires high level of education before entering the profession still on occupation. John O. Ehigie went further to say that due to technological development, the lower class of unskilled workers have less chance for upward mobility these days than 30 to 40 years ago in Nigeria. In this view to also discover that considerable portion of the working class have experienced downward social mobility as the need for their manual work has decreased in proportion to the sophistication of industrial complex.
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND OF PARENTS ON THEIR CHILDREN’S PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOL
The educational parent understands the intricacy in child development and is better placed to help the child positively.
Burt (1994) stated that in a well to do household where the father is educated, the mother is educated, the child will be given the right foundation. It is clear, that the educated parents often leave their children grounded in the home before starting the formal education.
Nor M. (2000) maintained that a similar position when he said that parents who showed disregard for education is bound to have some adverse effect upon his child’s educational progress. James U. (2002) in his own view examined that “educational level of the parents has an effect on the academic performance of students in class two but not in class five” he said that it indicate in the lower class that home influence on the students are important. He suggested that where there is close proximity between parents and their children, the level of parents’ education can directly affect students’ academic performance. This supports that family education has a positive contribution to academic performance of their children since it embraces the amount and nature of the formal education received by parents and the medium of communication at home a child performance in school.
Here we see that family with high educational level continue to assist their children in retaining or advancing beyond their present status by having them educated. Moreover, educated parents tend to have greater encouragement to their children to work well in school than less educated ones.
FAMILY SIZE AND THE INFLUENCE ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Writing on the family size Musgrave E. (2000) came out with the fact that the future of the “good home is its size”. He supported this submission with that fact that in general, the small family produces the most intelligent children. It follows that parents share their intelligence by limiting the size of their family. This will make a child to be closer to his parents and will habitually use more grown upward ideas than he would if he was lost in a crowed of siblings.
According to Hints (2004) the child that comes from polygamous home perform poorly in the school, because there is no love any time for the parents to stay together and discussion issues concerning the school with the children. Musgrave pointed out that it is home and not the school that exerts the real prime and lasting influence on the child’s character. He asserts that there is deprivation in the home, there will be deprivation in the child’s personality.
Hence, the family size of the parents reveal how the children will be raised which will either affect the child positively or negatively.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF PARENTS AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THEIR CHILDREN
A number of educators have documented their views on the influence of socio-economic status of parents on the academic performance of their children. Julian J. (2000) in her view highlighted that “the lower and social position of one’s father the less likely that one can take advantage of educational opportunities. The low income group is confronted with barriers in access to educational materials. Although they may be aware of the general importance of education in the society, but the fact remains that they may as well consider their financial inadequacy or inability to get access to educational facilities.
Burt (2003) claimed that a child from a high economic social background has an advantage over the child from a lower class. In higher class, there may be television, radio set, newspaper, reading and writing materials which help to prepare a child for learning in school. The parents also encourage children to school by employing a part-time teacher for them, whereas in lower class, parents may not be able to provide for the necessary materials that would help prepare them for learning.
Ezewu E. (1992) mentioned the determining factors of the different social class. They include:
People from high socio-economic status earn higher income than those from low social class. Those from high socio-economic class also value formal education than those from low socio-economic status.
More attention is being paid to those of higher class than those of lower class in the society. Parents who have more lucrative jobs will be able to meet up with the basic needs and academic requirement to their children. This statement was supported by Edward when he was trying to say that if young people (child) does not get enough satisfactory diet, physical and mental thinking and attention to school will definitely result to failure because his/her wind will not fully be present in the class when information is being disseminated and when the child has no decent dress to wear, other children make his torn dresses a laughing stock; the unhappy child can not perform at his peak in class.
Also, lack of resources motivated great influence on the youths, it is not unusual that a child from poor home can manage to afford food, shelter and clothes is always forced by necessity to leave school early. This will enable him secure his employment and thereby help the family. However, a society of family who exhibits the following characteristics which are stable culture education, economic advantages, democratic etc. equipped their children to perform better than their counterparts at school lacking these characteristics at home.
FAMILY STRUCTURE TO ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THEIR CHILDREN
The structure of the family was dealt with whether the parents are happily married or separated or divorced. Douglass (2001) says that children’s attitude of work is deeply affected by the degree of encouragement their parent give them by own level of stability. Ezewu E. (2004) states that children raised from one parent often have to face emotional problems and these tend to affect their school work. As a result of the economic problems due to the family structure all over the world, most especially in Africa countries, one discovers that children from polygamous homes suffer in more ways than those from monogamous homes. They find it more difficult to afford essential materials for school like books, uniform, pocket money and payment of school fees at the right time, they are usually less disciplined because of the large numbers of children at home. They sometimes become truants in school and disrespectful to teachers.
Olowobugba (1994) supporting this, said that children from unstable homes looses the basic unborn tendency towards learning because of the lack of parental influence and poor performance in school. In most cases, juvenile delinquencies arise from broken homes where children neglect the desirability and necessity of loyalty to the country and respect the law and order of the land. Ezewu E. (2004) agrees that when analyzing the effect of the environment on school learning he said that “broken homes have effect on the performance of children, children feel more secured and grow up with less difficulty when the relationship between their parent is cordial. From these writers, the researcher is able to appreciate the fact that a broken home can bring about or can affect the academic performance of children at school.
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This article was extracted from a Project Research Work/Material Topic
“A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF PARENTS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE”
