Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine family types and academic performance of pupils in Social Studies in primary schools in Ikono Local Government Area. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of this study consists of all the two thousand seven hundred and sixty five (2,765) primary school pupils in all the sixty three (63) primary schools in the study area.
Sample size of two hundred and forty (240) primary five pupils were drawn from eight (8) primary schools. In each of the eight schools selected, thirty (30) pupils were drawn using simple random sampling technique. The instruments for data collection were questionnaire and Social Studies Achievement Test, while the data collected were analyzed using independent t-test statistical method.
The result revealed that pupils from monogamous family performed significantly better than pupils from polygamous family. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that polygamous family should be discouraged across the nation.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education is the process of developing the capacities and potentials of the individual so as to prepare that individual to be successful in a specific society or culture. Thus, it is worthy to note that Education is a primary need in this time of globalization. Education does not only gives insight to any endeavour but also grooms the personality, inculcate moral values, add knowledge and give skill to members of the family.
Education is essential for the development of the society. Ekong (2018) pointed out that the more educated the people of a society are, the more civilized and well-discipline the society would be. The family has a responsibility to socialized children to become productive members of the society.
It is important that the family should involved in the process of imparting education to their children to enable them excel in their academic career and to become productive and responsible members of society. According to Henry (2013), academic performance of pupils may not only depend on the quality of schools and the teachers, rather the extent of family participation has vital role to play in the academic performance of their pupils in school.
Family is one of the primary agents of socialization. The family is the ultimate and significant learning environment of every child. It is the foundation of education for the child in which values, norms and ideas are acquired. The child’s family could either help to improve or impede a child’s academic performance. Family is the fundamental and important structure of the society that has an important role to play in one’s life and in the society at large.
The influence of the family on a child and its roles in the creativity, cultural, social and moral aspects are very great and important. Correct and balanced relationship between parents and their children is one of the factors influencing both a child physical, mental and educational health. Research has shown that interaction between parents and children are considered to be the most important and fundamental to their personality building.
It is an indisputable fact that the family is a microscope of the society. This is however an indication that what happens in the larger society is a true reflection of our individual family life. Also, it is an incontestable fact that every child in school comes from a family.
Some come from extremely poor homes while others have well-to-do parents. There are also those whose parents are poorly educated while others have highly educated parents. Some come from polygamous families. Equally, some are fatherless or motherless while some have no parents. Whichever category a learner belongs, it has either positive or negative effects on his or her general upbringing in life.
Deliki (2019) posited that family type refers to the kinds or categories of people in the society emanating from the background they take their root. It can also be seen as those kinds of people existing in the society, their characteristics following their background. Furthermore, family type simply refers to the background of individuals in the community coming up from a particular family structure (polygamous or monogamous).
Odili (2015) opines that there are various classifications of family types by social scientists such as monogamous and polygamous families; nuclear and extended families respectively. Monogamous family could be referred to as the practice of being married to and having sexual relationship with only one opposite sex partner at a given time or period.
This is a one-man-one-woman legitimate conjugal relationship with usually minimal number of children. Polygamous family, on the other hand, could be referred to as the practice of having more than one wife or husband at the same time which always results in the birth of many children. A polygamous situation in which the woman has more than one husband at a time is referred to as polyandry, while the case of a man that has more than one wife at a time is called polygamy.
In consonance to academic performance of pupils, family type have been positively or negatively criticize by different authors to be one of the factors that increase or decrease academic performance of pupils in secondary schools. According to Adika (2017), academic performance of pupils overtime has shown that the type of family a student comes from have influence on his/her academic performance in school. In a study conducted by Ali (2012) on family types and academic performance of social studies pupils in Rivers State, Nigeria; the population size of his study was one thousand three hundred five (1,305) JS2 pupils.
The sample size of his study was two hundred JS2 pupils; the instrument for data collection was questionnaire and achievement while the data collected were analyzed using independent t-test. The result revealed that pupils from monogamous family (i.e. small family) do perform better in school compared to children or pupils from polygamous family (i.e. large family). However, Sigelo (2015) was of the opinion that families with few number of children (two to three) tend to be more intelligent compared to children from polygamous families.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
David (2013) conducted a research study on family types and pupils’ academic performance. He reported that pupils from monogamous families perform better academically than those from polygamous families. He concluded that the home environment and the nature of human relationships in monogamous and polygamous families are important determinants of pupils’ academic performance because in a monogamous family, the parents will be able to cater for the educational needs of the children irrespectively of the type of school.
whereas, in a polygamous family because of the large number of children, parents will be struggling to meet the demand of the children in which it will affect negatively the academic performance of those children. Thus, he concluded that monogamous family type should be considered by the parents in favour of their children’s academic performance in schools.
Denga (2015) asserted that incentive, recommendations and other forms of reward system should be employed as motivational factors to stimulate pupils to higher academic performance. It is likely that the much a child achieves during his school days depends on the type of family he/she belongs.
For instance, a student from monogamous family type will experience great deal of interest in what he/she does at school and the parents will support by providing all the required books and finances needed for a great advantage of such student. Inversely, any student from the polygamous type of family will be lamenting for his parent help in school activities and other engagement in the school environment.
Effiong (2017) opined that the process of socialization depends on both the family and school playing complementary roles in bringing up the child. Therefore, a child family type may affect the academic performance of a child either positively or negatively. Therefore the focus of this study is to examine the impact of Family types on the academic performance of pupils. Family types could be view in different ways, it could be in terms of polygamous or monogamous family, and it could also be seen as extended or nuclear family. On the other hand, it could be large or small family size.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The bed rock of any education is the primary school; primary school system is the foundation of which all other levels of education build on. Academic attainment is an important parameter in measuring success in pupils. Observation and reports have shown that success or high academic performance has become a very hard task to accomplish by primary school pupils in recent times.
When a child academic foundation is poor, that child will suffer academically for the rest of his life. Umoh (2013) observed the poor academic performance in primary school; he proclaimed that the primary school system needs to be restructured. According to him, most of the present day primary school pupils’ graduate cannot read. The poor academic performance of pupils in public primary schools constitute a great source of worry and serious concern as well as discomfort to both the parents, school managers, policy makers, and various governments stake-holders who are responsible for education.
The causes of this poor academic performance of pupils have been attributed to so many factors such as school factors, home factors, pupils’ characteristics, and teachers’ variable. Others are socio-economic status of parents, teaching methods, and family types. Archibong (2016) found out that among the primary school pupils, some pupils come to school properly fed while some are not, some are always happy while others are not, some have reading materials, whereas other are not. Based on this, the researcher was motivated to examine the impact of family types on academic performance of pupils in primary schools.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this study is to examine family types and academic performance of pupils in Social Studies in primary schools in Ikono Local Government Area. Specifically, the study sought:
- To examine the influence of polygamous family on Academic performance of primary school pupils in Social Studies in Ikono Local Government Area.
- To examine the influence of monogamous family on Academic performance of primary school pupils in Social Studies in Ikono Local Government Area.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions were raised to guide the study:
- Does polygamous family influence Academic performance of primary school pupils in Social Studies in Ikono Local Government Area?
- What is the influence of monogamous family on academic performance of primary school pupils in Social Studies in Ikono Local Government Area?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study;
- There is no significant difference between polygamous family and pupils academic performance in Social Studies in Ikono Local Government Area.
- There is no significant difference between monogamous family and pupils academic performance in Social Studies in Ikono Local Government Area.
1.6 Significance of the Study
This study will be importance to many individuals in the following ways;
- It will also enable school administrators to see the need for providing books, in the school library knowing fully that some pupils may not have the opportunity in their houses, may be as a result of large children in the family and noisy environment.
- It will also be helpful to pupils in that, their parents will see the need of supporting their education.
- It will be of great advantage to the educational planners in the process of policy making that will be beneficial to pupils from different family background.
- The finding of this study will also serve as a reference point to the future researchers.
- It will help the school counselor to understand a child, and therefore advise and adopt ways to improve the child’s academic performance.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
1.7 Delimitation of the Study
This scope of this study is delimited to family types and academic performance of pupils in Social Studies in primary schools in Ikono Local Government Area. The population of the study consisted of all the Primary five pupils in the study area. The sub-variable under consideration include; polygamous family and monogamous family.
1.8 Limitation of the Study
In the process of conducting this research study, the following problems were confronted by the researcher.
- Time Factor: The time to carry out this study posted serious problem because as at the time of this study, there were other school activities to be carried out by the researcher.
- Financial problem: In order to visit all the schools that were selected, high cost of transportation was a problem.
- The respondent’s poor attitude: The individual difference of the respondents was another problem in the process of data administration. This was because some pupils did want to respond to the instrument.
1.9 Operational Definition of Terms
The following terms are defined for easy understanding of the work.
Family Types: This refers to the characteristics of pupils’ family that affect the life of the pupils either positively or negatively. E.g. family size
Polygamous family: This is the type of family where a man is married to more than one wives.
Monogamous family: In this type of family, a man is married to only one wife.
Academic Performance: This is the scores that the pupils obtain in test or examinations.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents the review of the related literature under the following sub-headings; Concept of family types, polygamous family and academic performance of pupils, monogamous family and academic performance of pupils and summary of literature Review.
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
Family Types and Academic Performance of Pupils in Social Studies in Primary Schools
