THE EFFECT OF PARENTAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. A CASE STUDY OF ETHIOPE EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF DELTA STATE NIGERIA

ABSTRACT
The study therefore is to design a look into the effect of parental socio economic status on students academic performance in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. The purpose of this study is to investigate into the effect of socio-economic status of parents on the educational performance of students, to find out if social-economic status of parents influence their students academic performance in physics, to find out the influence of family size on educational upbringing of physics students. This study recommend that There should be emphasis on parental interest in student education in the local government area, efforts should be put in place by the government and parents in stimulating students to learn and improve on their level of academic performance in the area, educational authorities need to monitor, inspect and evaluate the students performance so as to identify the main factors of student failure rate in Nigerian secondary schools

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nigeria as any other developing nations has witnessed prolong military rule and aborted civilian administration, which necessitated the promulgation of decrease, edicts and law concerning d educational practices at the Federal, State and Local government levels. The inconsistent continuation of government due “coupdetat and the political instability demphasised the continuity in the implementation of educational laws and policies since the year 1970’s till this present time. This gradually laid the foundation of the fallen standard in education at the primary and secondary school levels (Shittu, 2004). High level of illiteracy, poverty and law socio-economic status coupled with high rate of patterned and material deprivation of student academic needs, which was necessitated by the poor socio-economic situation of the country has thrown many farmers and old rural dwellers into improth financial problem such as poverty, lack of finance to purchase the necessary textbook and working materials for their children. Also many rural sub-urban can no longer pay the school fees of their wards.
These ugly situation have promoted young school student to drop out of school to engage in subsistence farming, harking and some become house maids or engage in any other minor job to support their academic pursuit. Hence, many students have since taken schooling as a secondary assignment and school attendance on rotational basis the resultant problem posed by this, is poor academic performance in school examination like the National Examination Council (NECO) and West Africa Examination Council (WAEC).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In Nigeria, the level of failure rate among primary secondary student is alarming this is due to the fact that some of the students parent are not financially stable or economically buoyant. These factors indicate that socio-economic factors of parent have effect on the academic performance of students in school as a result, this study investigate the socio-economic effect of parents on the academic performance of student in delta state using Ethiope East local government area of Delta State as case study.

1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY
The aim of this study is to critically look at the effect of socio-economic factors of parents on the student’s academic performance in Nigeria schools; case study of Ethiope East local government area, Delta State.

1.4 OBJECTIVES
To achieve the aim of the study, the following specific objective are:
I. To understand the socio-economic factors of students parents
II. To examine the impact of socio-economic factors of parent on student performance.
III. To know the relationship between socio-economic factors of parents and academic performance of students.