ABSTRACT

          Since secondary school students come from different families, it is basic that they have different family background and experiences including academic and social values. The success of students therefore depends significantly on the family structure which provides enabling environment or otherwise where learning could be encouraged. Thus, this study investigated influence of family background on academic performance of secondary school students in Ilorin South Local Government Area (LGA) Kwara State.

          The target population for this study was secondary school students in Ilorin South Local Government Area, Kwara State. However, a sample of two hundred (200) respondents participated in the study. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents. Five null hypotheses were formulated and tested using the t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical measures.

          The results of the analysis revealed that low educational level of parents affects students’ academic performance because it undermines their contributions in solving students’ academic challenges. Similarly, poor accommodation at home is another factor that hinders students’ academic performance. The results of the tested hypotheses revealed that there was no significant difference in the influence of family background on academic performance of students based on religion, parents’ educational qualification, contrarily, there was significant difference in the influence of family background on academic performance of students based on gender.

          Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that parents should adequately monitor their children’s academic performance. Also parents should ensure that cordial relationship is established between them and their children. On the part of the government, the three tiers should work out effective modality for the training of guidance counsellor and adequate employ their in schools.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

        The singular purpose of education is to produce a useful citizen; a citizen that is useful both to himself and the society in which he lives, and generally, to the world community. It is often very difficult to give a universally definition of education. Nevertheless it is possible to define education from three perspectives vis-à-vis: from philosophical, sociological and psychological. From philosophical perspective, education can be defined as a process of initiating the individuals into a worthwhile activity to the succeeding generations. Such worthwhile activities include desirable skills, attitude and value. In sociological perspective, education can be defined as a process by which the individuals are trained in the norms and value of the society through socialization. Also from the psychological perspective, education refers to the modification of behaviour of the learners in a controlled environment.

        According to Etzioni (1984), educational institution can be defined as social unit that pursue specific goals which they are structured or organised to serve. The school as a social system and device means of evaluating its students to findout how far the school is achieving its goals. This related to the students cognitive development to determine what quality and quantity of learning has taken place in the learners, the moral standards and psychomotor development of students.

        Family is a unit made up of the father, mother and children. This pattern is known and nuclear family. On the other hand we have the extended family or kin-group mostly found in Nigeria, India, and other West African countries. Family background arising from marriage institution which is found in variety forms such as monogamy, polygamy and polyandry. The role of the family in the socialization of the child is in the area of moral training, intellectual training, character training, love for others and vocational training.

        The future of any society lies in its ability to train and socialize its young ones. The stability of its institution and political ways, this productivity of its industrial resources and the creativity of its intellectual talents reflect the degree of success of the adults in the society who have been given the responsibility for making good progress and developing its youths. These factors influence a child’s learning ability i.e. school environment home condition, peer groups and culture in the society. The two major socializing institution of the society are: – the family and the school it has been observed by (Daramola 2006) that throughout the world, there is no where that unequal access to essential facilities does not exist among people. These inequalities are recorded in all spheres of life, it could be found in education, health and other sectors with its attendant effects on social strata.

        (Stevenson, David and Baker 1987) in a study on family school relation and the child’s school performance where they used a nationally representative sample or American households, they examine the relation between parental involvement in schooling and the child’s school performance. With a sample of 179 children, parents and teachers, they investigated three hypotheses. The result shows that the higher the educational status of the mother the greater the degree of parental involvement in school activities. The younger the age of the child the greater the degree of parental involvement and the children of parents who are more involved in school activities do better in school than children with parents who are more involved in school activities do better in school than children with parents who are less involved. In an analysis of cross sectional data, they discovered support for the three hypotheses. The educational status of the mother is related to the degree of parental involvement in schooling, so that parents with more education are more involved, parental involvement is related to the child’s school performance. Also parents are more involved in school activities if the child is younger. The mother’s educational level and the age of the child are stronger predictors of parental involvement in schooling for boys than for girls. They do not, however, find a direct effect of maternal educational status on school performance independent of parental involvement in school activities; they discuss these findings in light of the relation between families and schools.

        The social development of children in modern societies increasingly occurs within an institutional context. Day care, preschool, and regular school are an important part of a tymeal child’s environment from infancy to late adolescence. Schools are environments that establish a series of developmental tasks for children. The nature of these tasks varies: schools present children with a set of new interpersonal relationships that they must incorporate into their social world: schools demand cognitive performances; and schools demand the socialization of the child to the student role (Lefton 1994) obsolete Youniss and Smollar, 1985). In all of these developmental tasks, the family is an important resource for the child. The social development of the child can be viewed as a project of the child’s parents, and the educational institution (Litwak obsolete and Meyer, 1999).