INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF PARENTS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARYY SCHOOL PUPILS IN ANAOCHA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ANAMBRA STATE

Background of the Study
Education is very important for the economic development of any nation in the world. An educated population is an asset to the future development of a country. The basis of an educated population is the performance at the primary school level (Fajoju, Aluede &Ojugo, 2016). They further stated that Primary education plays important role in human capital development which cannot be underscored. According to the Federal Republic of Nigeria FRN (2013) National Policy on Education, primary education is the education given in institutions for children aged 6-11years plus. Atieno (2011) noted that primary education lays the foundation upon which social and political development of a nation is founded.
The academic performance of any primary school pupil is highly influenced by its parents socio-economic status, it is therefore worthy to note that anything that affect the developmental environment of the children will affect their education. Murithi (2015) averred that parents have a role to play in ensuring high academic performance in their children’s education. Such roles according to him include the provision of learning materials, helping the children with homework and assignment at home, building a parent-teacher relationship and ensuring the prompt payment of their children’s school fees.

Socio-economic status is defined as a definite background variable that represents a feature of the social structure in society (Adeniyi, 2015). It is a fact that families where the parents are privileged educationally, socially and economically promote a higher level of achievement in their offspring. It is understood that low socio-economic status may negatively and depressingly affects students‘ academic achievement because due to low socio-economic status, a student does not have access to important resources and this generates additional stress and tension at home (Engin-Demir, 2009). Farooq, Chaudhry, Shafiq and Berhanu (2011) stated that students may not show effective academic performance in school whose parental socio-economic status is low. Socio-economic status is the combination of economic and sociological measures of an individual‘s work experience and the economic and social position of an individual or family in relation to others on the basis of income, educational level and occupational status. For the analysis of a family socio-economic status, the household income, education of earner and occupation are checked as well as combined income compared with an individual, when their own attributes are assessed. Socio-economic status is generally divided into two categories i.e., high socio-economic and low socio-economic, to explain the two aspects a family which an individual may fall into.

In Nigeria today rich parent can afford high school fees , textbooks, extra lessons, good feeding and upkeep money at school, domestic servants at home to relieve the pupils of home chores, while parents of pupils from poor home cannot provide all the comfort needed to improve learning. However if the pupils does not work hard despite all the good parental background they will end up not performing well and vice versa. Some poor parents lack enough resources and funds to sponsor their children’s education, medical care, good housing, facilities and social welfare services (Femi, 2012). Suleman, Aslam, Shakir, Akhtar, Hussain, & Akhtar (2012) found that those children whose socio-economic status was strong are likely to show better academic performance and those with poor socio-economic status may show poor and unsatisfactory academic performance.

Jing-Lin, Gang & Wei (2009) defined academic performance as a measure of degree of success in performing specific tasks in a subject or area of study by students after a teaching /learning experience. Poor academic performance according to Adeniyi (2015) is a performance that is adjudged by the examiner as falling below an expected standard. Parental role is one factor that has been consistently related to a child’s increased academic performance (Kgosidialwa, 2010). While this relationship between parental roles and a child’s academic performance is well established, studies have yet to examine how parental roles increase a child’s academic performance. Some researchers like Saifi and Mehmood (2011) have linked socio-economic status of parents with academic performance of their children. Parents with high socio economic status can afford to pay their children school fees provide learning materials, school uniforms and provide a conducive home environment. Ogunshola and Adewale (2012) concluded that parents have a major influence on their children’s achievement in school and through life. Tonn (2005) opined that parental involvement tends to drop off during the transition from primary school to junior and senior high schools. That transition also corresponds to the largest drop in children’s achievement.
In Neni town, what we see around these days is nothing but nonchalant attitudes of some parents towards their children education. Some parents no longer stay at home to see to the affairs of their children, simply because of the quest for means of survival. Due to the fact that these children are not properly cared for, some of them grow up to create problems for the family and the society. Lots of parents show unwillingness towards the educational pursuit of their children. Atieno (2011) stated that many parents are not as involved in their children’s education as they should be. Fajoju, Aluede and Ojugo (2016) also noted that teachers have also blamed the dwindling performance of children in schools on the lack of involvement of some parents in their children’s education.
With these observations, the poor performance of Primary school Pupils in Neni town could be traced to the schools, parental attitudes, socio-economic status, family size etc. the main aim of this study is to examine the influence of socio-economic background of parent on the academic performance of Primary school Pupils in Neni in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State.