CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

        This cause of poor or good educational development of students in secondary school in addition to other factors may largely start from home, conditions such as poverty, poor feeding, insufficient sleep and general neglect could cause the backwardness of the child’s educational development. Herein comes the effects of the family social background towards the educational development and achievement of a child in local government area of Delta State, whose simply and understanding meaning is the effect of the social class of the family on the general educational development of a child. Through the school may be trying hard to help the child to improve on the educational development, its effort may yield poor results if the parental attitude to school is lukewarm. This could reflect from either the stability or instability of the family in question. The students are blamed most of the time for performing poor in their academic work. The fact is not only that they do not read their books or do their home works but these of them who do not normally pay their school fees promptly might be sent out of the school to get their schools fees from their parents. Due to the effect of the family background towards the educational development of a child, the parents have to work harder to belong to a better social class. (Have a better social background). They should at least belong to the lower middle social class, since the educational development and the success failure of their children finally depend on the family income.  

1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

        Nowadays the teachers are often blamed for the poor educational development of children without actually finding out other related factors that can contribute to children’s problems as far as their educational development is concerned. Most parents are quick in pointing accusing fingers at both the child and his teachers, whereas they ought to have the greater blame. Should the whole problems be entirely heaped on the teachers who always want the best for his/her students? Hence it is necessary to find out the justification the parents have for blaming the teachers as regards the poor educational development of children. In actual sense, the foundation of socialization of the child is laid at home. Moreso, the children spend more time at home than school. many factors associated with the family could have actively contributed to the positive or negative educational development of the students. The problem therefore is how do we reconcile the conflicting views on the effects of the family background towards the educational development of a child in school.

        Hence the data collected for this study are therefore intended to answer the following questions;

1. What effect does the degree of parents educational level affect the educational achievement of a child?
2. Are children from illiterate homes more prone to poor performance in educational attainment?     
3. How does the condition of living in the home of parents affect the educational development of a child?
4. Does the socio-economic class of a given family influence the general educational development of a child?
5. Does the family structure in terms of monogamy or polygamy affect the educational development of a child?
6. Does parental negligence determine the rate of the education achievement of their children?  
7. Does sex of a child determines the educational achievement of a child?
8. What are the influences of the gifted children as regards their educational achievement?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

        The purpose of this study is to find out the general effects of the social belonging of the family towards the educational achievement of a child in Local Government Area of Delta State. In recent years, there has been a ranging contradiction between the homes and the school as to which of the two is infact, responsible for the poor or good educational development of children. For this reason, the research decide to carry out a case study as to what effect, family social background has on the educational development of children’s. This will lead us again, to find out the suitable class a family belong to in order to ensure that the targeted goal of giving their children a sound education are achieved. This is a result of the investigative research made by researcher. The purpose of this essay is among other things to find out why the social family background and the general educational development of children remain problematic. This will enable the researcher to make appropriate recommendations on ways of improving the educational development of student from different family background.       

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

        It is no gain saying that the primary purpose of this essay is to examine the courses of the problems of the differences in family background towards the educational development of children in the Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State. infact, this study will only help teachers, parents and students both all those who are involved with the development of children from childhood to parenthood, to know if the family background actually had and significant effect on the educational development of the children in school. It will enable the teacher to take a close look at the role being played by the family, so as to encourage the students to perform better in their academics development.

        Furthermore, teachers, parents and students do not know as much of the positive and negative effects posed by the social belonging of ones parents towards the general educational development of a child, or they were less thoughtful and mindful of such problems, therefore a careful study and reading through this essay work may help in no small way in highlighting such problems and focusing parents attention on them. Infact, the outcome of such a study is to benefit in the first place, the general public, parents, students in particular, then teachers and youth in the society.

BASIC ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY

1. The educational attainment of parents can affect the educational development of children in school.
2. The family structure affects the children’s academic development.
3. The sex of a child affects the educational development and achievement of child in school.
4. Gifted children have positive influence over the non-gifted ones as regards their educational achievement.
5. Parent’s negligence affects the educational development of children in school.
6. The family social economical class can influence the general educational development and achievement of a child.
7. Condition of living space in the home of the children can affect their educational development and achievement. 

HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

        Based on the above assumption the followings hypotheses are made. These hypotheses could serve as a guide to this study; hence the questions will be tested;

1. Do students whose parents are educated do better in terms of educational achievements than those whose parents are not educated or are less educated?
2. Does the socio-economic class of a given family influence the general educational development of a child?
3. How does the condition of living in the home of parents affect the educational development of a child?
4. Does a family structure in terms of monogamy or polygamy affect the educational development of a child?
5. Does parental negligence determine the rate of the educational achievement of their children?
6. Does the sex of a child determine the educational development and achievement of such child?
7. What is the influence of the gifted children as regards their educational development?
8. How the place of residence of studnets, parents or guardian does affect the education development and achievement of a child?
9. How can children from high and middle class homes do better than children from lower class homes in terms of educational achievement?

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

        This research work is restricted to an investigation of the effect of the family background towards the educational development of a child. This research work is again restricted to some schools in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State. Due to the largeness of the area, five selected schools in Isoko North were used for the purpose. 

        The findings therefore, may only be used in places outside Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State for reference purpose.