CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In Nigeria and many other developing
countries, education has been considered to be the cornerstone of economic
growth and development. The Nigerian government believes that to survive in
this competitive world economy, quality of education is the key variable. In this
belief, educational reforms have been put in places which were directed towards
improving the quality of education. These reforms in Nigeria are demanding
greater student’s academic achievement and commitment from teachers. This is
because of the belief that socio-economic background of the students and gender
might be responsible for the academic achievement of students in secondary
school.
The poor performances of students’
secondary schools pose a persistent challenge to researchers who have tried to
identify the factors that might be responsible for these poor results. Many reasons
have been given such as lack of qualified and dedicated teachers, lack of
infrastructure materials, same attributed to teacher’s methodology, inability
of the students to understand English language. Yet, not enough attention has
been paid to the socio-economic background and academic achievement in
Christian religious study.
Adamolekun (1993) viewed that adolescence
s the most important period of human life. He further described adolescence as
the spring of life of human being and a very important era in the total life
span.
Hess (2000) identified children from a
lower class as slow learners, aggressors and turn at his studies also compared
the relative intelligence of children of high socio-economic background which
he disposed that those from high socio-economic background homes score higher
than those children from low socioeconomic background homes. The differences
are clearer in childhood and adolescence age than in infancy period.
The relationship between family size
and academic performance of a student is brought into focus by Yoloye (1994) in
Ogundele (1998) it is reasonable to expect a father with several ways will find
himself in greater financial strain than a father with one wife, therefore a
polygamous family will have greater difficulty in sending his children to
schools which the school fees is expensive.
The success or failure of parents
affect the interest of students in school and this will determine the academic
success or failure of the children in the school. In a situation where the parents
provide the material needed by the students in the school this will encourage
the students to learner more but if the material needed by the students in the
school is not provided this will discourage the interest of the students.
Gender inequality in the educational
achievement and opportunity I recent years is been recognized as one of the
major obstacles to women development world-wide various findings reveal that
gender differences in teaching of Christian religious study in his senior
secondary school. All of them were men, can one therefore ask for the
imbalance, why there are no women among them? Is it because the women fill to
reason very well as men do or is it because women are weaker sex? For this
reason a number f research findings have been conducted to verify the influence
of socio-economic background and sex on academic achievement.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It is obvious that there is a
significant relationship between socio-economic background of the parents and
academic performance of the students’. Daramola (2000) remarked that
adolescence from high socio-economic background have advantages over the
adolescents from low socio-economic class. In a higher class family the basic
facilities and opportunities that facilitates academic achievement are provided
for the adolescents such things include, television, radio, computer etc. on
the other hand, the adolescents from low socio-economic class is handicapped as
these facilities which enhance his performances in school are lacking. Invariably,
the situation contributes to the widening stratification and inequality on the
society including Nigeria. This is a counter to the earning and the dream of
Nigeria for an equalitarian society. The issue if not checked is capable of
breeding anti-social behaviour like truancy, running away from school,
pilfering, stealing, low national manpower etc. this loss opportunity for
adolescents could also create inferiority complex and warped personality among
such students.
Therefore effects of socio-economic
background calls for urgent attention to be carefully addressed hence the need
for the researcher to investigate of academic performances of students in
Christian religious study and how parental educational attainment, occupation,
income and gender of the individual students impinge on the academic
achievement of the students and also to identify the root causes and proffer
solutions.
Therefore
the study is designed to solve these problems they are:
1. The
differences between socio-economic background of students from high and low
class
2. Gender
(sex) as a predictors of academic performance of students n Christian religious
study
3. The
educational background of the parents
1.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1. There
is significant difference in the performance in Christian religious knowledge
of boys and girls
2. The
age of students affects their performances in Christian religious knowledge
3. There
is significant difference in students offering Christian religious and other
arts subjects in the school
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to find
out the influence of socio-economic background and gender (sex) on students’
performance I Christian religious knowledge. This is to distinguish between the
students that are from high and low socio-economic background with respect to
the relationship between the two groups, high socio-economic background will be
better in performance in Christian religious knowledge than those from low
socio-economic background.
Apart from this, the study will also examine
the issue of gender whether there is much difference in the scores of male and
females in Christian religious knowledge ins secondary schools.
This is to enable the Christian
religious knowledge teachers to choose the appropriate methods or strategies to
use in the subject.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study is significant to so many
people like the curriculum developers, educators and other practitioners in
education industries who have studied empirically on the basis to formulate educational
policies that can provide equal socio-economic backgrounds.
It becomes clear that the need for a
good and scientifically based education cannot be over-emphasized since the
nation now realized the need for quality education, which will lead to self
reliant nation, it is therefore, significant to fin doubt the influence of
socio-economic background in the performance of students in Christian religious
knowledge.
Another reason is that this work is
consider important is that it will make the authority or the government
concerned in training more competent teacher in Christian religious knowledge.
However, the findings of this work will enable teachers in secondary schools to
improve in their method of teaching and the attitude of the government in providing
adequate materials. The study is also to enable the students to have more
interest in Christian religious knowledge.
1.6 LIMITATON OF THE STUDY
This study covered some secondary
schools in Ado local government in Ado local government in Ekiti state. There
was selection among the schools in order to make the study easy for the
researcher nn terms f cost and time. The outcome of the research would be
implemented in all secondary schools in Ado local government in particular.
The study is limited to Ado local
government in Ekiti state. The researcher would have loved to cover a wide area
such as covering all the schools in Ado local government but due to the limited
time and logistic reasons.
The selected secondary schools in Ado
local government area are:
1. Ado
grammar high school, Ado Ekiti.
2. Ado
community high school, Ado Ekiti
3. Anglican
high school, Ado Ekiti
4. Olaoluwa
senior high school, Ado Ekiti
5. C.A.C
grammar school, Ado Ekiti.
FOR COMPLETE PROJECT CALL 07064961036
CHAPTER TWO