HOME VARIABLES AND PUPIL'S ACADEMIC PERFOMANCE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION: A STUDY OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NSIT UBIUM

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background to the study

The academic performance of pupils in primary schools today is affected by a number of factors. These factors contribute greatly to the difference in their academic performance despite the fact that pupils in the same classroom are exposed to the same learning experiences. Factors that contribute to the difference in pupil’s academic performance can broadly be classified into: the teacher factor, the pupil’s factor, school environmental factor, and home variable or factors.

Hornby (2001) defines home variables as the condition which affects the behavior and development of somebody or something. The author also consider environment as the physical conditions that somebody or something exist in a natural world in which people, animal and plant live. Hornby stated that unhappy home can affects a child’s behavior and development as well as it can affect an adult productivity. Stone (2002), viewed living home as the sum total of factors within the school setting, external to the individual that tend to influence his/her achievements.

Viewed from a broad perspective, there are many home variables that affect or influence the academic performance of pupils in primary schools ranging from school location and facilities, noisy environment, space, family-child upbringing style, level of parental education, family size etc. All these factors tend to affect childhood care and education and other aspect of their school work. Performance here refers to achievement or success/failure in an examination. It also refers to the grade obtain by pupils through the process of assessment or in the course of evaluation.

According to Udoh (2008), “assessment” can be considered as the process of ascertaining objectives using multifactor measurement procedure”. It can be classified into two categories namely school based assessment. Assessment carried out by teacher within a school is called based assessment while the one carried out by agencies outside the school such as SUBEB is regarded as external assessment. Both forms are very relevant in education because they aid educator to determine the performance of learners. Joseph and Udo (2003), were of the view that a desirable environment for testing performance is one in which the learners are:

v Physically comfortable and emotionally related.

v Free from interruption and destruction

These provision are made available to all the learners in the school but at home a number of variable tends to affect the availability of these provision and more. One of them is parental level of education which can influence children’s learning. Literate parent can understand better the value of education and stimulate their children with available resources to attain certain level of education. Such parents are interested in academic work of their children; they inspect their children’s work at school, encourage them and reinforce them when necessary. Illiterate parents as observed by Enang (2009) “give or provide little or no motivation to their children in school in terms of supervising their work at school”.

Family-child upbringing style is another important variable that contributes to the difference in pupil’s academic performance. Such as style could be autocratic, democratic, Laissez-faire etc. and each style affects children’s learning negatively differently. Each style has it psychological effect on the child and thus attitude to learn.

Understandably family size exert a great influence of pupils in primary school due to the fact that if the family is of a manageable size the parent will be help to provide basic needs of the children which in turn facilitate learning and performance but if the family is large and uncomfortable, it may become a noise factor and a hindrance to will find it difficult to care for the basic needs of their children. 

In view of the above trend, this study focused on home variable and pupil’s academic performance in Early Childhood Care and Education in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Home variables include such factors as parental level of education, family size and family-child upbringing style. Aside from classroom instruction, these variables play major role in the differentiation of the academic achievement of pupils in the primary schools.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

 In Nigeria today, it is widely believe that the standard of education is failing despite the huge investment made in education by the government, Non-Government organization, Community based organization, individuals and other cooperate bodies. Some reasons have have been advance for the trend. For instance in a typical primary Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, 

pupils performance because parents   in a typical classroom in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, pupils from different homes are found, taught by same teacher, under the same condition and are exposed to the same learning experiences using the same instructional techniques and materials. At the end of the term /session, the pupils are subjected to the same kind of evaluation but some pupils perform better than others. An analysis of the common entrance examination result of a particular primary school is tabulated below:

Table 1.   Analysis of Common Entrance Examination 

Year of Exams	No. of Pupils Listed	Credit      Passes in subjects
											Fail	withheld
2015	108	11	19	25	28	11	10	-	2	-	12	-
2016	124	1	7	9	19	25	19	13	2	4	25	-
2017	76	1	4	13	11	8	9	10	11	0	9	-
2018	119	7	14	16	27	17	16	7	2	1	12	-
2019	97	4	21	15	14	14	13	3	1	0	12	-

 

From the above table it can be seen that in 2015 out of the examination, 12 pupil’s did not have the required credits point while 12 reconded fail. In 2016, 124 pupils took the examination 38 pupils did not have the required credit point while 25 pupils failed. In 2017, 76 pupils registered and wrote the examination. Out of these, 38 pupils performed poorly. In 2019, 97 pupils took the examination, out of these 68 pupils performed better than 29 others.

The difference in these pupils performance has raised a number of questions in the minds of researchers such as: could this difference be attributed to the model of teaching, or quality of teaching or availability of instructional materials and facilities? Could the population explosion experience in classrooms as a result of the compulsory free education policy be identify as the differentiating factor? Is the modern trend in the society a situation where both parents are working and return home tired with no ability to look into their children’s school work is responsible for this development? Could it be that the parents contributes to this difference in academic performance?  This study is design to investigate the contributing factors to the difference in pupil’s academic performance in primary schools in Nsit Ubium ocal Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

1.3   PUPOSE OF THE STUDY

The study investigates home variables and pupil’s academic performance in early childhood Care and Education in primary schools in Nsit Ubium ocal Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The study aimed at the following objectives:

    I.        To determine the difference in the primary school pupil’s academic performance based on parental level of education.

  II.        To examine the difference in primary school pupil’s academic performance based on family size.

III.        To access the difference in primary school pupil’s academic performance based on family-child upbringing style.

1.4   Research Question

    I.        How does pupil’s academic performance in Early childhood care and Education influence by parental level of education?

  II.        Does family size influence primary school pupil’s academic performance in social studies?

III.        Does family-child upbringing style influence primary school pupil’s academic performance?

1.5   Statements of Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:

    I.        There is no significant in the primary school pupil’s academic performance based on parental level of education

  II.        There is no significant difference in primary school pupil’s academic performance based on family size

III.        There is no significant in primary school pupil’s academic performance based on family-child upbringing style

1.6   Significance of the study

It is the hope of the researcher that this study would be of benefits

To teachers, pupil’s, parents, and school administrators. The study would be of great benefit to the teachers because it would help them know why some pupil’s perform poorly in school while others performed well. The teacher will now be able to address such problems. The students would benefit from the findings of this research, as it will help them to adjust to the environment they find themselves and concentrates on their academic.

The study would assist parents to know their role in the academic development of their children; it would help them to see the need to provide a more conclusive environment for their children as this will improve their academic performance in school.  The school administrators would benefit from this study because it would improve their knowledge as to why some pupils taught by same teachers, using the same instructional technique and materials perform better than others.

Conclusively, this study will achieve it aims if it stimulates further scholarly research into home variable and pupils academic performance in other parts of the state and the nation as a whole 

1.7   Basic Assumptions of the study

    I.        Home variables contribute to the difference in primary school pupils in Nsit Ubium Local Government of Akwa Ibom State.

  II.        Parental level of education influence the academic performance of pupils in primary school

III.        Family size influences the academic performance of pupils in primary school

IV.        Family-child upbringing style plays a great role in the differentiation of primary school pupils academic performance

1.8   Delimitation of the study

This study was delimited to the assessment of the role off home variable on pupil’s academic performance in primary schools in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State

Many factors could contribute to pupil’s academic performance in primary school. But for the purpose of this study, only parental level of education, family size and family-child upbringing style were selected for investigation.

Spatially, the scope of the study centered only sample of primary six pupils in the public schools in Nsit Ubium local Government Area during 2018/2019academic session.

1.9   LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher adapted the expose factor research design and therefore had no direct control of the independent variable because their manifestation had already occurred. The data collected from the field were organized and analyzed as raw as they were collected. Therefore the correctness of the findings is limited to the authenticity of the responses from respondent.

1.10 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Home variable: refers to those factors in the home of pupils, which can have either a positive or negative effect on the academic performance in school. Such factors include parental level of education, family size and family-child upbringing style.

Performance: for the purpose of this study, performance refer to score obtained in an achievement test examination.

Family size: this refers to how large or small a family is. It means the total number of children in a family. In this study, a family that has 1-5 children is considered large.

Educational Level: the level of one’s attainment or position in an organized and sustained institution, which embodies a combination of knowledge, skills and understanding.

Family Environment: this refers to the physical and psychological environment of a child whether it is conducive or not.

Family-child upbringing style: this refers to the way and manner a child is raised from the infancy stage to the adulthood