The influence of family background on the academic achievements of pupils

· INTRODUCTION
From the beginning, parents have been the major persons involved in raising children in every society. That is why the family is recognized as an important agent of socialization.

Adekeyi, A. (2002) observes that it is mainly through their efforts and abilities that children are socialized to become productive citizens. So, wherever parents possess the resources and skills and apply them effectively and joyfully in raising their children the entire society benefits.

This brings joy and pride to the nation, and encourages development and peaceful co-existence. The children themselves feel good and bring happiness to their parents and the whole community.

In view of this, the influences of family background on the academic achievement of pupils becomes and indispensable factor in the wheel of progress. It is a fact that parental background influences pupils’ academic achievements either positively or negatively. A well-to-do family will have positive interest in the education of their children. According to Ezewu, E. (2003), family background of parents affects children especially in respect to their academic achievement.

The primary function of parents is the rearing and protection of children and passing on to them the values and beliefs of the society. They also teaches children the rules, traditions and ways of doing things. It is also the responsibility of the parents to provide their children with shelter, food, education, security and personal development. This is the family of orientation.

The level of educational attainment of parents influence the academic achievement of their children. For instance, in a family where both the mother and father are educated, their children are always taken good care of in their academic activities. They may go through their children’s exercise books after school, or even employ a private teacher to teach them after school. By so doing their academic achievement will be improved; whereas in the case of illiterate family, the need to supervise their children’s exercise book is not there, hence their children’s low academic achievement in school.

It is obvious to note that the level of achievement of a child educationally also depends on the hereditary factors and the environmental factor.

Hereditary factors influence a child’s academic achievement in school. This happens when a child inherits poor genes from either the mother or the father; such a child will not be able to achieve much even if the environment is conducive for effective learning. On the other hand, a child who inherits a very high gene from parents may not perform very well if, the environment is not stimulating.

A condusive environment is necessary for a good academic achievement of a child. A stimulating environment could spur up a potential mediocre into an intellectual giant while an inhibiting environment could turn a genius child into a mediocre.

The aim of this research work is to find out the influence of family background on the academic achievements of pupils. The effect of family background on pupils’’ academic achievement in primary schools has been a problem for the past decades and must not be left to chance.

· STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The influence of family background, that is, the socio-economic status of parents in the academic achievement of their children have been posing very serious problem to many people in our society. It is argued in some quarters that children from rich parents perform better academically than those children from poor parental background in the classroom situation. But some people hold the opposite view by arguing that most of the children from rich families are way-wards in school academically than children from poor and average families. In the classroom here in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area, the teacher teaches pupils together irrespective of their family background.

This research work is premised on this erroneous thinking and misconception in our society. The researcher is therefore poised to make findings to determine whose child performs better academically and what are the causative agents to this. The researcher will also find solution to the problems and suggest ways and methods to eradicate or improve upon the situation for the benefit of pupils, parents, schools, educators, and the society as well.

· PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of family background on the academic achievements of pupil in selected primary schools in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. The objectives of the study specifically include:
i). Identifying the influence of family background as it affects the academic achievement of their children.
ii). Carrying out controlled study and investigation on home environment and facilities in these homes for children educational development with special reference to Eastern Obolo Local Government Area.
iii). Seeking to suggest the possible solutions to the problem so as to enhance pupils academic performance in schools.

Hopefully, when parents are once more reminded of their divine and practical responsibilities of their children, our school system and society will be more stable, disciplined and functional one.

· RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i). Is there any significant difference in the academic achievements of pupils whose parents are of higher socio-economic class and the academic achievements of pupils whose parents are of low socio-economic class?
ii). Is there any significant difference between academic achievement of pupils from educated parental background and pupils from uneducated parental background?

· SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The topic of this project is to highlight the influence of family background on the academic achievement of pupils in primary schools in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area. This study is therefore significance because of the following reasons:
i). It will highlight the problems associated with pupils performance in school.
ii). The result of the study will also uncover the fundamental roles expected of the family in respect to the intellectual training of the child.
iii). The study will also serve as a source for future research in its area of study
iv). The outcome of this study will also be of immense value to the inhabitants of the area in that it will seek to improve the interest of parents with regards to education
v). Finally, it is hoped that when this research work is completed, the learners, parents, teachers, ministry of education, curriculum planners, government and the entire society will benefit from the findings by formulating a policy that will bridge the gap between children of high socio-economic status and that of the low socio-economic status in respect of their academic performance in school.

· DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
With due consideration to the factors of time, economic depression of the period, geographical location of the target population, the scope of this research is delimitated of only five primary schools in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The school are:
i). St. Silas Primary School, Okoroete
ii). Government Primary School, Iko Town
iii). Government Primary School, Okorombokho
iv). Government Primary School, Okoroinyong
v). Government Primary School, Amadaka

For the human resources, only pupils in primary four, five and six in the above named schools serves as the primary source of data collection.

· LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In the course of the conduct of this research, the writer experienced some limitation. It was sandwiched between regular lectures and other academic programmes. The investigation involved traveling a number of times from one primary school to another. Apart from financial constraint, only one local government area was covered so as to meet the scheduled time the project is expected to be completed and submitted.

Finally, the findings of this investigation and the conclusions drawn therefore are limited by the accuracy of information supplied by the respondents.

· DEFINITION OF TERMS
INFLUENCE: This is the power to affect somebody’s character, benefits or action through example.
FAMILY: This refers to a social unit consisting of parents and their children.
PARENT: This refers to the one who has begotten offspring or occupies the role of mother or father.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: This refers to how much the pupils respond to the teaching and learning of the formal school successfully especially using their own effort and skill.
PUPIL: This is a person who is being taught, especially a child in a school.
LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS:- This refers to families whose income ranges from N200.00 to N1,000.00 per month.
MIDDLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS:- This refers to families whose income ranges from N1,000.00 to N5,000.00 per month.
HIGH SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS:- This refers to families whose income ranges from N5,000.00 to N50,000.00 per month.

· text review
Interesting work have been carried out by eminent scholars on how the family a child is born into affect his or her academic achievement in school. Thus, this chapter is specifically concerned with reviewing from text books, journals and unpublished sources, what others have said as they apply to this research study.

From the purpose of logical presentation of facts, the information gathered from sources were presented under the following headings:
i). Effect of family background of parents towards the academic achievement of children.
ii). Effect of literate and illiterate families on academic achievement of children
iii). Relationship between home environment and academic achievement of children.

· EFFECT OF FAMILY BACKGROUND OF PARENTS TOWARD THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN
The socio-economic status of parents also influence the level of educational achievement of the pupils in schools. This is so because with the availability of money and resources, the family will be able to provide them with all the needed materials. But children from poor family background will be denied of this opportunity irrespective of their brilliant performances since there is no resources and money to back up their demand.

A study conducted by Ezewu (1994) showed that socio-economic status of parents affect children’s education and particularly academic achievement in the following ways:
i). The degree of importance which each family attached to schools.
ii). Financial expenditure including fees, textbooks and other equipment.
iii). Facilities available at home.

A well to do family will have positive interest to education of their children not minding whether the child is brilliant or not. This will force parents to see to it that the materials needed are provided for the child with the available resources. Parents will be able to pay children school fees in time, buy text books and other equipment that will help to enhance the children academic achievement.

Ezewu further opined that children from a high socio-economic status leave the primary school between 9, 10 and 11 years of age, while those of low socio-economic status leave primary schools between 12, 13 and 14 years.

This shows that performance of students in school depends on their parental socio-economic background. The availability of facilities such as tables, chairs, light and well conducive learning environment at home do help the child to learn better. All these should be present at home with the help of available resources.

Macfarland, M. S. (2003), in his book “Intelligent Teaching Professional Skills for Student Teachers” analyzed the chance of placement of children from middle or working class and lower class family in comprehensive high school and secondary Modern school. He found out that 72 percent of children from family of lower class against 28 percent of children from middle class were placed in Comprehensive High school. He also found out that 10 percent of children from family of lower class against 90 percent of children from middle class were placed in Modern Secondary School based on intelligent quotient.

This means that children from family of lower socio-economic class usually find themselves in local schools, where much will not be demanded from them. But children from middle socio-economic class are found in better school irrespective of the high cost of things there.

Harighurst (2002) observed in his study that the existence of socio-economic class of parents affects the development of a child. He divided the class into unskilled, party skilled, intermediate and professional which goes with variation in provision for the children. He said that children whose parents are from skilled, intermediate and professional class will develop physically and intellectually as there are resources for the provision of their needed materials that will assist in learning. Whereas children from unskilled and party skilled parents will not develop physically and intellectually as thee is no financial assistance.

Stones (2004) is with the view that economically and culturally, poor homes do not provide the stimulation necessary for the development of intellectual abilities involving in school learning. Certain physical conditions that exist at home, poor housing and overcrowding environment are often associated with poor academic achievement and adjustment. Poor clothing, malnutrition, lack of adequate sleep and rest, all have profound effects on how they behave and react.

From the foregoing, it is observed from my experience in school that those pupils from low socio-economic parents started poorly in the formative stage in the primary school which consequently leads to their inability to cope with the secondary or tertiary education.

· EFFECT OF LITERATE AND ILLITERATE FAMILIES ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN
Most researchers have confirmed the effect of illiteracy of families on their wards performance in schools. Children whose families are illiterate have been seen to lack home encouragement. This implies that as some illiterate families refuse to provide their wards with needed textbooks, they are discouraging them from learning.

David (2007), in his write-up stated that textbooks aid studies after normal classroom teaching.

Also, many students lack parental assistance as a result of their illiteracy and ignorance. They fail to motivate, reinforce, give reward and punish their children on their performance which might have forced them to be serious in learning.

On the other hand, literate families have interest on their wards performance. They struggle to provide them with needed materials and stand the chance of giving adequate encouragement through counseling.

Family disagreement is most prevalent in illiterate families; disagreement scarcely exist in literate families as individuals mind their business and understand themselves.

Mario (2006) conducted a research work and discovered that domestic work has an effect on students performance especially the ones born to poor parents who go about hawking some food items before going to school. According to him, a student might help in preparing fufu (foo foo) or frying groundnuts before going to school. The preparation of all these items is time consuming, yet parents expect the food to be ready before their ward goes to school. The resultant effect of parents attitudes is that the students is late for school, sleep in class during lesson due to weakness, he does not pay attention, cannot concentrate, find it difficult to obey simple school rules, is forgetful, and finally fails to do assignment.

On the other hand, literate families having known the important of education even draw-up a reading time table for their children. They also arrange for part time teachers to teach their wards, check their workbooks from time to time and provided adequate motivation and rewards when they perform better in class assignment and activities, test and examination.

In placing children in school, literate parents have to choose school in which conducive learning environment such as well prepared classroom for learning, well equipped libraries, science laboratory etc are available.

· RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOME ENVIRONMENT AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF PARENTS
Studies on children’s attitudes to education have shown that children are affected by home background, parental socio-economic status, level of educational achievement, marital relationships at home, school climate, sex and peer groups influence among other factors.

According to Hurlock (2005), the home background and parental attitude to school activities and education generally are some of the strongest and most persistent in determining a child’s interest and his consequent attitudes to education.

Education and occupation of parents with their income to a large extent defines the condition of the home.
“Home condition” is among other factors that affect a child’s success during an intelligent test or in learning achievement.

Farrant (2004) confirmed that children who grow in homes where the mind is stimulated developed mentally more than those from homes where there is no incentive for mental growth, exercise. He added that all behaviour is a response to some stimulus in the environment.

Families with high socio-economic status usually have books and educational materials around the home as part of the environment to which the growing child is exposed. Consequently, children of such families are expected to do well in school. Poor academic achievement of children from large families is associated to poor housing condition, over-crowding, and poor clothing and feeding. It is observed that these factors particularly affect the reading and study habit of children.

The home environment of a child affect his or her academic achievement. It is agreed that the socio-economic background of homes where such conditions as great poverty, poor feeding, insufficient sleep and rest and general neglect are known to be the cause of backwardness of children in school. Children who do perform poorly on mental ability test often do better on the same test after being placed in a ‘richer’ environment which stimulate the growth of mental abilities.

It is an observable fact that parents of very large families tend to have occupation in the semi-skilled, unskilled and labouring categories, and that their children are likely to be average or below average in intelligent quotient, whereas the bright children tends to come from small family groups with skilled occupation.

Hurlock (2003) again in his contributions stated that a large proportion of students who are diligent and exhibit deviant behaviors are from the disadvantaged home background. In such home backgrounds, the children are not directed towards the right path to life. Such children are consequently often emotionally depressed and lack social adjustment and poor attitude to school work.


· summary
This study was carried out to find out the extent to which a family a child is born into influences his or her academic achievement in primary schools in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. In order to carry out this research work successfully, two research hypothesis were formulated thus:

1. There is no significant difference in the academic achievements of pupils as regards their parental family background.

2. There is no significant difference in the academic achievement between pupils whose parents are literate and pupils whose parents are illiterate.

The data for the analysis was collected through a questionnaire. A total of 200 pupils and teachers from primary 4, 5 and 6 classes from the five sampled schools in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area were used. Data used in testing these hypotheses were collected using a twenty (20) items questionnaire. In the data analysis, the researcher used Chi-square test for all the hypothesis.

It was found out that pupils whose parents are of high socio-economic class were better placed than pupils whose parents are of low socio-economic class with regards to their academic achievements; and so they were found to be those scoring above the mean in the items, thereby rejecting hypothesis I.

The data collected in relation to hypothesis II were analyzed using Chi-square test statistical analysis. The purpose of this study was to find out whether literate and illiterate family background has any influence on the pupils’ academic achievements in schools.

Summary of the findings
1. There is a significant difference between pupils from high and low socio-economic background with regards to their academic achievements in life.
2. There is a significant difference in the academic performance between pupils whose parents are literate and those whose parents are illiterate.

The literate parents having known the importance of education encourage their children to learn by providing the necessary materials needed, thereby improving their academic achievements; whereas illiterate parents are less concern in the academic achievement of their children.

· Conclusion
Based on the result of the findings of study, the following conclusion are drawn:
i). That family background is a significant contributory factor which influence the academic achievement of a child in school.
ii). That there is a significant difference in academic achievements between pupils whose parents are of high and low socio-economic class.
iii). That those pupils whose parents are literate perform academically better than those whose parents are illiterate.

· Recommendations
In view of the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made by the researcher:
a) Parents should provide their wards with essential materials that will help them improve on their academic performance.
b) Headmasters of schools should discuss the importance of materials in learning with parents in PTA meetings.
c) The Government at all levels should establish and equip more adult education centres for the training of illiterate parents.
d) Illiterate parents should be encouraged to go to school in that their literacy will enhance their children’s academic achievements in schools.
e) Government should equip primary school libraries with current textbooks and instructional materials for effective teaching and learning.
f) Government and Headmasters of schools should encourage pupils to study hard by giving prizes and awarding scholarships to the best pupils in all the subjects at the end of each term or year.
g) Parents should endeavor to give their wards spare time to read and do their home works at home rather than engaging them with domestic works. a

If the above recommendations are strictly adhere to, the problem of poor academic achievements in our primary schools will be minimized if not totally eradicated.

· Suggestion for further study
In order to have a comprehensive understanding on the extent to which family background can influence academic achievements of a child in primary schools, there is need for another study to be carried out in other local government areas of Akwa Ibom State.


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