THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND AND GENDER (SEX) ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE



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.

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CHAPTER TWO

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