EFFECTS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF PARENTS ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS
Man as a social being is endowed with different abilities to explore his environment and possibly to improve the lots of mankind. That is why there are differences in educational attainment of students.
However, these variances are not only found in students’ characteristics like hereditary, age, sex and intelligence quotients which are believed to relate more strongly to his/her achievement levels. A considerable portion of variation in students could be accounted for, in other forms via socio-economic status of parents, family and environment, (family size), beliefs, value and prestige, reward of higher educational parental choice etc.
The effects of socio-economic background of parents on the achievement of their children in school have been a great factor in the recent decade in academic system in the country.
Socialization is the study of the society. Various sociological schools of thought have asserted that in deciding whether a child performs well or not at school is of immense importance to identify the difference between the influence of the socio-economic background of parents and their children’s academic achievement and attainment.
Coleman (1975) and Medill (1963) have argued that parental financial position and their level of education also reflects strongly on students’ performances. This is so because it is generally accepted that the educated parents mostly value education. However, the background of a child affects his success in schools.
Levine and Harighurt (1975) discovered that all societies large or small, primitive or modern show social status group phenomenon of ranks. The leader and people of high esteem occupying position at the top, others occupy intermediate position, yet others are at the foot of the ladder in social scale.