THE INFLUENCE OF HOME ENVIRONMENT ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT

Abstract

The project work was carried out in Egor local government area of Edo state and the ten schools were randomly selected to look out for the influence of home environment on the academic performance of a child. Some socio cultural problems which are likely to affect a child’s academic performance were examined with four research questions. The instrument used in the collection of data was the questionnaire, which were tested statistically using sample percentage scores. The statistical analysis is that a child whose parents are educated performed better than those whose parents are less educated. The study also shows that learning materials stimulate a child to learn and that a child who has cordial relationship with his/ her parents performs better in school than those who do not. It as also discovered that cultural factors can also influenced a child’s academic performance for instance; a child is likely to face conflict divergent cultures

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

The academic performance of any student cannot be separated from the home environment in which the child lives, healthy home environment offers emotional security to a child. Education has one of its basic task as to train young people to become useful members of the society. This training begins at home in the informal way. The home of the child is the first place he enters as he is born into the world by his or her parents. Children are motivated to work on activities and learn new information and skills when their environments are rich in interesting activities that arouse their curiosity and offer moderate challenges. The same can be said about home environment , unfortunately there is much variability in motivational influences in homes, some homes have many activities that stimulate children thinking as well as computer, books, puzzles and parents who may be heavily interested in their children cognitive development and spent time with them on learning.  Much of the variability in the relation between family income and children’s intellectual development comes from the family provision of a stimulating home environment (Young, Linver & Brooks, 2002).  Children intellectual development is most strongly influenced by the home environment during infancy and early childhood. When they are under the direct influence of parents. As children mature, schools and peers also begin to play a role in their intellectual socialization. There is much evidence supporting the hypothesis that the quality of a child’s early learning in the home environment relate positively to the development of intelligent and reading skills, (Meece, 2002, Sene Chai & Lefevre 2002), and parental involvement in schooling also predict achievement (Luckner, Whaley & Egeland, 2004).  Various homes factors have been shown to be important, mother’s responsiveness, discipline style and involvement with the child, organization of the environment, availability  appropriate of learning materials, opportunities for daily stimulation. Parents, who provide a warm, responsive and supporting environment, encourage exploration, stimulate curiosity and provide play and learning materials accelerate their children’s intellectual development (Meece, 2006). Which on the long run increases academic performance?  Within the home environment we must examine both the roles of mothers and fathers because differentiate parent behaviour has often been implicated as a variable affecting children’s development. Some of the potential parental behaviour that can influence children motivational beliefs are:

• Attributions for the child’s school performance
• Perception of the task difficulty of school work
• Value for school work
• Expectation and confidence in children’s abilities

The home environment provides the foundation for learning and is an element of the student life that can affect grades. Providing opportunities to learn outside the school help facilitate student success in the school environment, as reported by the university of Minnesota extension. According to experts the mother’s educational level had the single most important impact on a young child’s academic performance. The school cannot single handedly provide the continuation of the home environment, but the can play estimate role in laying foundation of the child in learning how to read and write however, this influence is characterized by various factors such as the parents educational attainment and cultural issues. Over the years the society recorded a persisted increase in the poor performance in the various school examination such as the senior school exam (S.S.C.E) comments from educator have shown that the blame for poor performance has been as a result of neglect and care free attitude toward academic work by students and parents. It is against this background that researcher has decided to investigate academic performance on child. There are innumerable factors that affect the child academic performance as stated above. It is obvious that a child academic performance is directly related to his or her environment as well as learning facilities and socio cultural issues. Every child is born with certain level of intellectual ability and capability but a good conducive environment with adequate learning facility will help boost intellectual and academic capability of the child. Parent from good learned environment will; always have good attitude toward education any provide learning materials such as the television, instructive videos, books and toys (creative toys) etc that facilitate the learning process if they are provided. Educated parents will always believe that it is important to help a child with his or her home work and revise the school work that the child had done but this is the opposite if a child is from a poor home environment to a large extent he or she is deprived of the opportunities and he or she struggle with the teaching and learning process.

 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Good education does not happen by chance. It is a product of effective teaching and learning coupled with the effort of the teacher, the school, the students, parents and their various home environments. Often at times the blames on the poor performance of students in school are shifted to the teachers and the school authorities. Most families in our society seem not to give adequate attention to the education of their children. It appears some of the parents have erroneous notion about the performance of their children, they do not know and seem to fulfill their role of guidance and encouragement in the child’s performance in schools. Some people also have the notion that the mass failure or success in schools could be traced back to the teachers and the school authorities. While other people see socio-economic status of the family as an influence to the child’s academic performance. However, some research works have revealed that the performance of the students is a joint effort of both the school authorities and that of the parents in different home environment. This calls for further research to find out the causes of the poor performance of the students and then proffer solution to that. In Edo state for instance, some students and parents have the notion that the factors responsible for the re-occurrence massive failure of student in junior and senior West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) is the factor emanating from the school authorities and the teachers alone. Some students even go to special Centre’s while few enlightened parents maintained that there are some factors in student’s home environment which also contribute to that. It is on this premise that this study was set out to identify some of the home environmental factor affecting the students’ academic performances and proffer solution to that.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are;

1. To investigate the relationship between a child home environments, level of parent’s educational attainment, learning materials a child’s academic performance in school
2. To ascertain the relationship between home environment and academic performance of student in secondary school
3. To ascertain the influence of teachers and academic performance of student in secondary school
4. To suggest possible ways which these problems can be solved.

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher;

H₀: there is no relationship between a child home environments, level of parent’s educational attainment, learning materials a child’s academic performance in school.

H₁: there is relationship between a child home environments, level of parent’s educational attainment, learning materials a child’s academic performance in school.

H₀²: there is no influence of teachers and academic performance of student in secondary school

H₂: there is influence of teachers and academic performance of student in secondary school

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Education is of immense importance to individuals and to the society at large. Educators have greatly assumed that the home environment, to a large extent determines the progress of an individual in learning situation. This study will therefore highlight the significant differences in various home environments. The study will enable educationist and curriculum planners to take full cognizance of individual difference among children in any teaching/ learning environment while planning. It will also help teachers to cater for the various classes of school children in the classroom. Also, it will enable the teacher to adopt new dimensional approaches while teaching finally parents irrespective of their educational qualification should encourage the child at home, and also provide the maximum stimulation at all times.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study is mainly concerned with the influence of home environment on the academic performance of a child. The researcher encounters some constrain which limited the scope of the study;

1. a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study
2. b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
3. c) Organizational privacy: Limited Access to the selected auditing firm makes it difficult to get all the necessary and required information concerning the activities.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. i) ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: this can be define as the score a child or individual obtain in teat or examination based on hi or her learning experiences.
2. ii) HOME ENVIRONMENT: home environment in this context simply means the immediate surroundings and first institution where a child is taught the basic norms and values by the parents before he or she proceeds to acquire formal education

iii) SOCIO STATUS: this is the total state of an individual based on inequality in terms of occupation, level of education and other societal issues

1. iv) SOCIO- CULTURAL BACKGROUND: this is the social and cultural makeup of an individual in relationship with his or her environment
2. v) EDUCATION: formal instruction or training given to a child in school
3. vi) PARENT: any person (man or woman) with legal claim of a child

vii) EDUCATED PARENTS: owner of a female child or male child with formal education in addition to informal education

1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study