CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives, research questions, research hypotheses, significant of the study, scope and delimitations of the study, and definitions of some key terms.

1.1. Background of the Study

Every responsible government is always making efforts to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich in society. This enables all citizens to have say in the affairs of the state. One way responsible governments tackle the widening gap between the rich and the poor is through education. The development of any nation depends largely on the quality of education of such a nation.

Education therefore has an immense impact on the development of human society.  The Cameroon Constitution affirms in its preamble that “the State shall guarantee the child’s right to education [and that] primary education shall be compulsory”. One of the objectives of the Cameroon Government is thus to guarantee equality of opportunity for access to education for every child across the country; this is why primary education is free in Cameroon.

Historically, Christian mission schools have been an important part of the education system, but most children could not afford them and were forced to choose state-run schools. (Mukum, 2005). Education became compulsory up to the age of 12 years, when 6 years of primary schooling was complete.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, primary school education in Cameroon has been free since 2000, however, uniforms and books were and are still provided by parents. At the secondary school level, tuition fees are high, and therefore unaffordable for many families. It is an experience of life that some people are very rich; some are averagely rich while some are poor. Some have different levels of education while some are uneducated.

Consequently, society has always been sub-divided into strata or classes of people each being referred to as a social class. They are basically three classes: The upper class, made up of the wealthy and aristocrats, the middle class, made up of the educated elites and the professionals, and the lower class, made up of the masses who are mostly poor and unskilled (Ayeni and Adu, 2003).

According to Rothestein, (2004) “Parents of different occupational classes often have different styles of child rearing, different ways of disciplining their children and different ways of reacting to their children. 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.” Since the responsibility of training a child always lies in the hand of the parents, it is not out of place to imagine that parental socio-economic background can have possible effects on the academic achievement of children in school.

The effects of socio-economic status of parents on the achievement of their children in school have been a great factor in the recent decade in academic system in the country. Various sociological schools of thought have asserted that in deciding whether a child performs well or not at school is of immense importance to also identify the difference between the influence of the socio-economic background of parents and their children’s academic achievement. Coleman (1975) has argued that parental financial position and their level of education also reflects strongly on students’ performances.  This is so because it is generally accepted that educated parents mostly value education.

Keeves and Saha (2000) opined that in most countries of the world educational achievements are related to social backgrounds of the students. These include the class of the family, ethnicity and language characteristics of the students. In line with the above assertion, Hill (2004) had also argued that socio-economic status of parents does not only affect the academic performance, but also makes it possible for children from low background to compete with their counterparts from high socio-economic background under the same academic environment.

Babadjou is a village where the majority of students are children whose parents are of the lower class. Due to the low socio-economic status of some parents, they can barely afford the basic requirements of their children. When a child is deprived of these essential needs, he can hardly perform well in school.

Most children whose parents cannot afford to pay for high cost of formal education are generally enrolled into apprenticeship programs such as farming, bricklaying, petty trading and others. It is against this background that the researcher is interested in investigating the influence of parents’ socio-economic status on academic performance of students in secondary schools in Babadjou. This research intends to investigate the variables in the parents’ socio-economic background with the view of assessing their influence on academic achievement of secondary schools’ students in Babadjou.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

Despite the aim of the Cameroonian government to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich and to make education affordable, many parents nowadays are still uncapable to pay their children school fees on time and even to provide school materials to them. With the contemporary social and economic inequality among the Cameroonian families and homes, the phenomenon of the differences in student’s academic performance seems to be very peculiar within the Cameroonian society.

Given education to children is usually shouldered by parents especially in the provision of educational necessities. Children from poor families find themselves in a dilemma while those from rich families are giving preference due to the greater ability to acquire most educational requirement with ease.

The gap in students’ performance and academic excellence constitutes a great source of worry to both parents, school managers, policy makers and the various institutions responsible for education of students in secondary schools.

Experience has shown that among the secondary school students there exist some differences which influence students’ academic performance, namely parents’ attitude, parent’s educational level, family size, parent’s financial situation, parent’s occupation and even the home environment. In the light of this, the main problem of this research is to find out if there exist in a relationship between parents’ socio-economic background and the students’ academic performance in Babadjou.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

1.3.1 Main Objective

The main objective of this study is to find the influence of parents’ socio-economic status on the academic achievement of secondary schools’ students in Babadjou.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

1. Assess the relationship between parents’ financial level and the academic achievement of secondary schools’ students in Babadjou.
2. Examine the relationship between parents’ educational level and the academic achievement of secondary schools’ students in Babadjou.
3. Study the relationship between parents’ attitudes towards education and the academic achievement of secondary school students in Babadjou.
4. Investigate the relationship between parents’ marital status and the academic achievement of their secondary school students in Babadjou.

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