Family Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools

Family Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools

ABSTRACT

 This study “Family variables and Students’ Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools” was conducted in Abak Local Government Area. Two hundred and forty (240) students were randomly selected from six public secondary schools out of ten (10) public secondary schools in the study area. Two null hypotheses were stated to guide the study.

A survey research design was used for the study and the instrument used for data collection was a researcher made questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Family Variables and Students’ Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools” (QFVSAPASSS) and the obtained data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient.

The findings showed that there was significant relationship between family variables such as parents’ educational attainment and socio-economic status of parents and students’ academic performance in Agricultural science in secondary schools. It was therefore recommended that: government should encourage parents with low educational background to attend adult education classes, create more employment opportunities so that parents who are not employed get employed, and that parents should encourage their wards to study hard.

Family Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

1.1    Background to the Study

The family is the child’s first place of contact with the world. The child as a result requires initial education and socialization from parents and other significant persons in the family. Agulana (2009) pointed out that the family lays the psychological, moral and spiritual foundation in the overall development of the child.

According to Fraza (2001), psychological home conditions arise mainly from illegitimacy of children, the label of adopted child, broken home, divorce and parental deviation. Such abnormal conditions of the family are likely to have a detrimental effect on the academic performance of the child. Schltz (2006) noted that if adolescents from unstable home, poor socio-economic status are compared with those from rich and stable homes, it would be seen that those from poor background have more social, academic and emotional problem.

Scales and Roehkepartain (2003) are of the opinion that the family and its structure play a great role in children’s academic performance. Levin (2001) also state that children of unmarried parents, separated families, poor socio-economic status, low educational attainment and so on often fail and are at risk emotionally and academically. However, this may not be completely applicable in all instances of low family and home background as the children may work hard and become successful in life. Moreso, Ayodele (2006) stated that the environment where a child finds his/herself goes a long way to determining his learning ability and ultimately his/her academic performance in school.

Furthermore, the family has been identified as an overwhelming factor affecting the students’ academic performance in schools. It would then appear that family variables such as socio-economic status of parents’, parents’ literacy level, occupation of parent and social class placement, if it is in poor condition may present a serious danger to the emotional, personality and mental adjustment of the young adolescent. These have a noticeable effect on students’ academic performance.

This study therefore was set to investigate the relationship between family variables and students academic performance in Agricultural science in selected secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

It is the desire of parents and government to produce knowledgeable and skillful citizens from all levels of learning. To complement the efforts of the federal government, each state established a mass literacy agency as part of the overall national effort to eradicate mass illiteracy in Nigeria (National Policy on Education, 2004).

This aim cannot be achieved if some students are deprived of the opportunity of being literate by the family background they came to meet right from birth.

This formed the basis for this research which was to examine whether there exist any relationship between family variables such as socio-economic status of the parents, parents educational attainment levels and the academic performance of students in agricultural science in secondary schools.

Family Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools

1.3    Objective of the study 

The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of family variables on students’ academic performance in Agricultural science in selected secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area. Specifically, the study intended to:

• examine whether there is any relationship between parents’ educational attainment and students academic performance in Agricultural Science.
• investigate whether there exist any relationship between socio-economic status of parents and students academic performance in Agricultural Science.

1.4    Significance of the study

The findings of this study will be significant to:

• parents as it will help them to understand their family background as it affects their children’s academic performance in schools.
• teachers as it will help them adopt instructional strategies that will be favourable to all students’ irrespective of their family background.
• educational Administrators because it will help them to adopt administrative process that will make learning of Agricultural Science and other school subjects effective and understandable to students irrespective of family background.
• researcher because it will serve as a source of reference on the topic related to this work. 

1.5    Research Hypotheses    

The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:

• There is no significant relationship between parents’ educational attainment and students’ academic performance in Agricultural science in secondary schools.
• There is no significant relationship between socio-economic status of parents and students academic performance in Agricultural Science in secondary schools.

 1.6    Delimitation of the study

This study covered selected secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area. The study sought to investigates family variables and its effect on students academic performance in Agricultural science.

Family Variables and Students Academic Performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools

1.7    Operational Definition of Terms   

The following terms are defined as they are used in the study namely:

Family: A group that consists of father, mother and children.

Family Variables: These are those differences that exist commonly between one family and another, example; parents’ educational attainment and socio-economic status of parents.

Students Academic Performance: Is the grade obtained by students in an examination or test.

3.3    Population of the Study

The populations under consideration in this study were all the students in senior secondary schools two (SS2) class in Abak Local Government Area.

3.4    Sample and Sampling Technique

A sample of six (6) public secondary schools was selected in the area. Similarly, two hundred and forty (240) senior secondary two (SS2) students were selected. Among the selected schools, three (3) were from Abak urban while three others were from the rural areas of Abak Local Government Area. In each case, random sampling technique was adopted for the study.

3.7    Administration of Instrument

The validated instruments were administered to two hundred and forty (240) senior secondary two (SS2) students selected from sampled secondary schools in the area. However, the procedure taken was that, after the researcher might have obtained permission from the study, he further contacted the head of science who directed him to the agricultural Science teacher who acted as research assistant.

The instruments was randomly administered to forty (40) senior secondary two (SS2) students drawn from each school. The researcher took time to explain the items and ways of responding to those items in order to avoid mistake. At the end of the exercise, all the completed questionnaires were collected from the respondents.

3.8    Method of Data Analysis

The data collected from respondents was organized and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (PPMCC) statistical module.