CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In Nigeria today every parent brings up their children in their own way depending on their Religious belief, social background and their level of exposure. Every parent dream good dreams for their children but most of them cannot do more than they could because of the level of their exposure.

What more can a parent do outside all they could do?

This really affecting the way they bring up their children knowing the fact that it is solely the responsibility of the parent to train up a child. The level of parent exposure is dependent on the background of parents. Most parent were not really opportune to go to school because of the background they came from and this chain continues. Lack of financial stability can render a good dream useless. No parent does not want to go to school but if the finance to continue is no longer there most of them might drop out of school except for the lucky parents.

When a woman’s nutritional status improves, so too does the nutrition of her young children(Lisa et al., 2003). These differences do not express themselves consistently as expected in the case of every family; rather they influence the average tendencies of families for different occupational classes.” (Rothestein, 2004). In line with the above assertion, Hill et al. (2004) had also argued that socio–economic status of parents do not only affect the academic performance, but also makes it possible for children from low background to compete well their counterparts from high socio – economic background under the same academic environment. Moreover, Smith, Fagan and Ulvund (2002) had asserted that significant predicator of intellectual performance at age of 8 years included parental socio economic status (SES). In the same vein, other researchers had posited that parental SES could affect school children as to bring about flexibility to adjustment to the different school schedules (Guerin et al., 2001). The academic performance of students in some selected secondary schools in Benue differ from each other (2009). Finding revealed that those with less scores were from a humble background with limited level of exposure.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The level of exposure of most parent in Nigeria plays a vital role in the child upbringing, financial instability is the major cause of lack of exposure of most parents.

This is visible both in their behavior and their level of reasoning which made it difficult to associate with people of high social status in the community.

Most children are born intelligent but might end up without the dream because they could not get the support from their parents who are their first mentor before their school teachers.

The scholarship scheme these days are no longer fought coming as it use to; this is really affecting the intelligent children that does not have any body to support them.

If the federal government of Nigeria could look into the society today to resolve some of these problem in some of the local government areas  in Benue state to aid the children with a bright future actualize their dreams the community will be a better place.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

1. Does the government policy have significant effect on the level of academic performance of students in Benue state?

2. In what ways can the teachers of some of these schools help improve a child academic performance?

3. Does the level of parent exosure have significant effect on the growth and development of the society?

4. Is the behavioural pattern of a child dependent on the level of their parent exposure?

5. In what ways can the society help some of these parents in the society towards bring up their children?

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H0: The level of parent exposure does not have significant effect on the level of academic of students.

H1: The level of parent exposure have significant effect on the level of academic of students.

H0: there is no relationship between the academic performance of the students and the socio-economic background of their parents.

H1: there is relationship between the academic performance of the students and the socio-economic background of their parents.

1.5 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

1. To determine the effect of the level of exposure of the parents on the academic performance of the students.

2. To investigate the relationship between the academic performance of the students and the socio-economic background of their parents.

3. To determine the effect of parent exposure on the behvioural pattern of the child.

4. To investigate the roles of teachers towards enhancing the academic performance of the students.

5. To determine the impact of the federal government policy on the improvement of the performance of students.

6. To discuss the impact of the scholarship scheme on the academic performance of the students.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

By the end of this research work, we shall be able to know the effect of parent exposure on the academic performance of student. The study will reveal the relationship between the academic performance of the students and the socio-economic background of their parents. It will also explain the impact of the federal government policy on the improvement of the performance of students. Finally the research work will explain the roles of teachers towards enhancing the academic performance of the students.

1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY

The research work is limited to the study of the effect of parent exposure on the academic performance of students in some selected secondary schools in Benue State. It looks at the federal government policy on the performance of students. This study also try to find out the role of the parent on the behavioural pattern of children and ways to better them by offering a proper recommendation from the result of the analysis carried out from the data generated from the distribuion of the questionnaires.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS: Benue State is one of the biggest state in Nigeria with a good number of local government, but due to financial instability, the researcher was unable to visit all the local government areas of Benue state.

But the information provided by the researcher are well refined to suit the research topic.

TIME CONSTRAINTS: Due to the researchers involvement in much survey, he or she could not have much time to study further into the research topic. But he or she was able to meet up with the requirements of the research work.

1.9 ORGANISATION OF STUDY

The chapter one of the research work gives the intoduction of the topic the effect of parent exposure on the academic performance of students in Benue state. The chapter two provide clearly the literature reviews with both the concepts, the theories and and the emperical reviews.

The chapter three of the research work provide the methodology for the analysis. The chapter four shows the analysis of the data using the methodology from chapter three while chapter five summarize, conclude and offer proper recommendation for the research work.

REFERENCES

Adewale, A.M. (2002). Implication of parasitic infections on school performance among school-age children. Ilorin Journal of science education. Vol.2pp. 78-81. Craig, T.N and Ronald, C.J.(2003). Socio-economic status does not moderate the familiarity of cognitive abilities in Hawaii family study of cognition. Jul.2007. Eze, O.M. (2002). The effects of parental economic status and pupil sex on school achievement in English language. Journal of Vocational and Technical Education in Nigeria. A.b.U Zaria. Vol.3 No.3 PP.27

Guerin,N. ; Reinberg A; Testu, F.; Boulenguiez, S.; Mechkouri, M. and Touitou, Y. (2001). Role of School schedule, age and parental socioeconomic status on sleep duration and sleepiness of Parisian children. Chronobio. Int. 2001; 18(6): 1005-17. Hill, N.E; Castelino, O.R.; Lansford. J.E.; Nowlin, E.; Dodge, P.; Bates, K.A. and Pettit, G.S (2004). Parents academic involvement as related to school behaviour, achievement and aspirations: Demographic variations across adolescence. Child development (2004) Vol. 75. No.5. pp.1491-1509. Laosa, L.M. (2005). Effects of preschool on educational achievement. NEER working paper.pp. 1-14. Omoegun, M. (2007). Effect of parental socio – economic status on parental care and social adjustment in the UBE programme in Lagos State: Implication for counseling. International Journal of Educational Research. Vol. 3(2) 2007 pp.81 – 87.