THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF PARENTS' ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF ONDO WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ONDO

This study investigates influence of the socio-economic background of parents on the academic performance of secondary school students in some selected secondary schools in Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State. Related literature was carried out and focuses solely on the aims and objectives of this study. Descriptive sample and sampling techniques were used for this study. One Hundred (100) copies of questionnaire were used for this study. Five secondary schools were selected for this study. Simple percentage were used to analyze the demographic section of the questionnaire, while mean score method of analysis were used to answer research question one to two. Results from finding of analysis shows that that parents in informal employment struggle to cater for their children’s educational needs than those in formal employment, parents’ attitude towards education positively correlates with their children’s educational achievement, students whose parents are in formal employment exhibit better academic performance than those whose parents are in informal employment, highly educated parents are more involved in their children’s education than lowly/uneducated parents, parents in informal employment struggle to cater for their children’s educational needs than those in formal employment, students whose parents are in formal employment exhibit better academic performance than those whose parents are in informal employment. The Researcher suggests that government should also intervene by providing learning materials to students from a low socio economic background, example note books, text books, uniforms etc, teachers should be encouraged not to discriminate between students from high socio economic background and those from low socio economic background, government and school’s teachers should device approaches of motivating especially students from low socio economic background who are suffering depression and anxiety, parents should be highly sensitized about the benefits of parental involvement in education. They need to know that parental involvement in education goes beyond merely school fees payment but creation of conducive learning environment at home, monitoring students’ progress in education among others. And that the researchers found out that most parents were peasant farmers who earn very little income per month. In light of this fact it was recommended that the government should boost the economic status of households in Ondo state through investing in more income generating projects.