ABSTRACT
This project work sought to find out how
family size influences the academic performance of students in secondary
schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. One hundred students were
used in four secondary schools. Relevant data was collected through the use of
questionnaires. They were treated by using frequency distribution and
percentage as statistical tools. The following constitute the main result.
Does family size influence the academic
performance of a child?
Does the income of family influence the
academic performance of a child?
Does the level of parent’s education
affect the education or academic performance of a child?
Does polygamous family affect the
performance of a child?
TABLE
OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Background of the study
Statement of problem
Research questions
Research hypothesis
Purpose of the study
Significance of the study
The scope of study
Limitation
Definition of terms
CHAPTER
TWO
Review of related literature
The family
The family and education
The size of the family
Different kinds of family
Level of parents’ education
The income level of parents
Social class of parents
CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
Research design
Population and sample
Sampling techniques
Instrument for data collection
Validation of data
Reliability of the instrument
Method of data collection
Data analysis techniques
CHAPTER
FOUR
Data presentation, analysis and interpretation
CHAPTER
FIVE
Summary, conclusion and recommendation
Summary
Conclusion
Recommendation and suggestion for further research
BIBLIOGRAPHY
QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Academic
attainment is an important parameter in measuring success in students.
Observations and reports have shown that success or high academic achievement
has become a Herculean task to accomplish by students in recent times. Poor
academic performance was recorded both at the secondary school and tertiary
levels of education in Nigeria.
The performance of students at all levels in educational institutions in
Nigeria has attracted much criticisms from all and sundry and from time
immemorial. The decline in academic performance of students in Nigeria has been
observed by Soyinka (1999), when he observed that education system in Nigeria
need restructuring. He went further to say that academic standard had fallen
drastically and the quality of graduates being produced by the nations’ schools
is questionable and subject to re-examination.
Poor academic performance of students has been of great concern to
educationists, guidance and counsellor in particular. Despite all guidance
programmes and counselling strategies mounted in schools to improve the
students’ academic performance were recorded yearly. It becomes necessary to
find out the causes of such poor performance in Nigeria secondary institutions.
Though these poor performances have been attributed to a lot of industries such
as students’ factors, like student’s attitude to school, approach to learning
and academic self concept. Apart from students’ factors, school factors and
parent’s factors, there are other indicators that cause poor performance. on
the part of the parents, there are certain factors which influence children’s
success, such as parents’ social class, parents’ education as well as parental
input and other factors, the family size and birth order may contribute positively
or negatively to students’ academic performance.
Family size in this context refers to the total number of children in the
child’s family in addition to the child himself, while the birth order refers
to the child’s position in the birth order. However, family type that a child
comes from either monogamous or polygamous family usually have impact on the
child’s academic performance. It is important to note that either of the family
type (monogamous or polygamous) family dictates the size of the family.
Polygamous family is peculiar to Africa in general and Nigeria in particular in
Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, the data collected revealed that
polygamous family is common among well educated family as well as among poorly
educated families. It is equally among professional and managerial fathers of
the top of the occupational hierarchy. It is the unskilled workers at the
bottom of ladders that the practice of polygamy is prominent, but it is equally
common among intellectually oriented families living in homes full of recent
books as well as families without a single book in their houses.
Information from literature depicted that children from larger families are
found to do worse than children from smaller families lower down the birth
order do worse than those higher up the birth order (Lacovou, 2001). According
to Adler cited in Uba (1989) first birth or the older child is usually
advantaged by a good deal of attention and warmth during the early stage on age
of life, which he entertains all alone. Observations and studies have shown
that more attention and time are usually accorded the first born (Becker,
1980). Parental attention by parents decline as the number of children increase
and later born children perform less well than their earlier born siblings.
Studies carried out in the past on the relationship achievement and birth order
have shown that there were negative relationships. For example Leoma (1982) on
relationship of birth order and creativity, first born and configuration of
oldest and only children are significantly more creative or verbal test of
creativity than later born.
Nwafor and Ango (1988) observed that there was more significant outstanding
academic performance amongst first birth children. Tenibiaye (2002) observed
that there was a significant difference in intelligent capacity between the
first and later born Spear (1982) in his study, investigated that birth order
effect on intelligence with later born children revealed that later born children
were less capable than earlier siblings when birth order controlled, family
size was found to be negatively related to intelligence.
However, Powell and Steelman (1993) and Vanejik and Degraaf (1995) argued that
children’s attainment depends on input of time and money from their parents.
The more increase of children in a family the less of both inputs. These inputs
are not money alone, but other essential things like time, attention, resource
delusion and so on. However Booth and Kee (2006) confirmed that children from
larger families have lower levels of education. Research on the effect of
siblings, size and position has been based on a theory of the allocation of
parental resources as presented in Becker (1981) and Spanta and Paulson (1995)
confirmed that differences were found in birth order and family size of
adolescent achievement in academic.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Today
teachers are often blamed for low academic performance of the students, without
actually finding out other related factors that can contribute to the students’
problem as far as academic is concerned most people are quick in pointing
accusing fingers on both the child and the teachers, should the whole problem
be heaped on the teachers who always want the best from their students? One
would like to find out the justification the people have for blaming the
teachers as regard the low performance of the students in their academic. The
truth is that the foundation of the child socialization is laid at home more so
children spend more time at home than in school. Many factors associated with
the family could have contributed to the high or low performance of the
students with the family size as one of them. The family size in one way or the
other contribute to the failure or success of a student in school, in the sense
that when the family is large, there will be no adequate concentration on the
child by their parents based on the academic performance of the child.
This study therefore considered the influence of non challant attitude of
parents in child bearing on the academic performance, in other words, the study
focuses on how the academic performance of the students can be influenced by
the family size.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Based
on the background to the study and problems discussed above, the following
research questions were generated;
1) Does family size affect academic
performance of students in secondary schools?
2) Does family birth order affect academic
performance of students in secondary schools?
3) Does parents’ educational status affect
the educational performance of their children?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
As a
result of the research questions stated above the following research hypothesis
were formulated and tested of 0.05 level of significance.
1. There is no significance
difference between family size and academic performance of students in
secondary schools.
2. There is no significance
difference between the family birth order and academic performance of students
in secondary schools.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The
purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of family size and family
birth order ion students’ academic performance in some selected secondary
schools. It is designed to compare the level of academic performance of
students from either large or low family size background. The study will give
an insight on how and why some students perform better than others.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
study is designed to find out the influence of family size on students’
performance in some selected public secondary schools in Oredo Local Government
Area of Edo State. The study will be of significant help to educate on how to
hand students from different family size background in order to increase their
performance. it will also enable school administrator to see the need for
providing books, newspaper and magazine in the school library know fully well
that the same students may not have the opportunity in their house, may be as a
re4sult of large children in the family and noise everywhere. The study will
also help teachers in adjusting his/her method for effective to accommodating
every student.
THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The
study will be used on selected public secondary schools in Oredo Local
Government Area of Edo State for the purpose of convenience, the area being an
urban area was chosen so as to involve children from various family background
four schools were used for the study, we find out that those from a polygamous
home, majority of them are ignored and as such their performance academically
is low as a result of lack of finance and they are made to struggle for
themselves, comparing them with those from monogamous home and home not more
for children are given attention to and parents are responsible for the
financing of their children education.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Family size: the
total number of children in the child’s family in addition to the child himself.
Birth order: this
refers to the child’s position in the birth order i.e. the position of the
child in the family.
Library: a
building in which collections of books, Cds, newspapers etc. are kept for
people to read, study and borrow.
Small size family: a
family with not more than six (6) people i.e. the father, mother and four (4)
children.
Polygamy: the
custom of having more than one wife at the same time.
Department | Education |
Project ID Code | EDU0256 |
Chapters | 5 Chapters |
No of Pages | 46 pages |
Reference | YES |
Format | Microsoft Word |
Price | ₦4000, $15 |
|
|
Contact Us On | +2347043069458 |