Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of family background on form five students’ choice of Biology as a school subject in Buea municipality. The data collected for this research was done in three schools: BHS Great Soppo-Buea, BGS Molyko-Buea, and Summerset Bilingual College (SBC) Molyko-Buea.

The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire which was guided by the following research question. To what extent does parental educational level influence their children’s choice of Biology as a school subject? To what extent does parental status influence their children’s choice of Biology as a school subject? To what extent does parental marital status influence their children’s choice of Biology as a school subject?

The parent population of this study comprised of the secondary schools in Buea municipality while the target population was made up of form 5 students of BHS Buea, SBC Molyko Buea, and BGS Molyko- Buea.

This study found out that family background (parental education, financial status), does not have any influence on students the choice to study Biology in secondary schools but living with their parents (marital status) and the provision of textbooks to them has boosted their love for the subject.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The family refers to a group of people who are related to each other, such as mother, father and their children. The family occupies an important position in the life of a child. It is in the family that a child is born and nurtured until when he or she becomes an adult to take care of him or herself.

According to Williams (2000), the first type of training a child starts within the family. It implies that family orientation in terms of education might play a major role in the children’s choice of school subjects to study.

Form Five is generally considered as a strategic class where the GCE O/L examination is taken. It is a transition from the first cycle to the second cycle. According to Sear, Maccobu, and Levin (2003), observation has shown that successes or high academic achievements have become difficult tasks to be accomplished by students in recent times. This is because students need financial and parental care from their parents.

Research examining the extent to which students are likely to choose subjects that identify with their parents’ characteristic have been carried out in Norway (Hanson, 1997), the Netherlands (Van de Werfhorst et al. 2001), Sweden (Dryker 1998), and the U.S (Davies and Guppy 1997) in general. These researchers take the line that parents’ interests are communicated to children, and thus the children are likely to choose subjects that suit their parent’s interests.

Because of the above issues, this research look at three of the many indicators to investigate the extent to which family background influences the choice of Biology as a school subject to form five students with particular attention to Buea Municipality of the South West Region of Cameroon. The indicators of family background are parents’ educational level, financial and marital status.

According to Wright and Wright (1994), the family is the foundation of human society, children who do not grow up with their parents or whose parents are always caught up in conflict or whose parents have no time to supervise them at the greatest risk of not achieving well academically, especially from five students and thus make the wrong decision on what to study in the high school.

Williams (2000) argues that the first type of training a child receives in life starts with the family, Wilkins (2001) states that the family as the major unit of socialization is very important for the development of the child.

It is from the family that the child gets to know other ethnic groups and the society at large for example in Cameroon, the family remains the most significant group to which one is attached throughout life, this should remain the ties between members of the family. Thus, the home has a great influence on students’ psychological, emotional social, and economic states.

Golutola (2000), note that the state of home affects the individual since the parents are the first socializing agents in the individual’s life.

Family structure in terms of single and two parents, families have been noted by (Tenibiaje, 2009; Eweniyi, 2005) to have a significant influence on students performance and mental development.  The educational level of parents plays a great role in their children’s choice of Biology in secondary schools.

The most prominent and direct explanation of the link between parents’ education and their children’s academic achievement relies on the assumption that parents learn something during schooling that influence the ways in which they interact with their children around learning activities in the home (see Eccles, 1993, Brody et al., 1995, Coewyn and Bradley, 2002; Hoff et al, 2002; Davis – Kean et al, 2003; Davis – Kean, 2005).

Advocates of this perspective argue that parents education should influence parents’ skills, values, and knowledge of the education system; which in turn, should influence their educational practices at home and the skills children have to model, as parents’ ability to intervene in the educational system on their children’s behalf.

The financial status of the parent will turn to influence their children choice of Biology and also the type of schools that their children will attend. It will also determine where the family can live and the types of jobs the parents are likely to have. On the other hand, parents with low financial status can not determine the best schools for their children and can not also determine the choice for their children.

The indicator marital status of parents anchors firmly on the theory of family deficit model (Donator. 2003) which sees nuclear or two parents family as the ideal family structure and single parents family as the ideal family structure and single parents family as a deviant from the ideal family. According to this model, single-parent families have a negative on the children in that it is bad for their upbringing.

The implication of this theory to the present study is the influence of family background on form five students’ choice of biology as a subject in secondary schools of the Buea municipality depends on their upbringing which perhaps is influenced by their family background.

1.2 The Purpose of the Study

There is specific and the general purposes

1.2.1 The General-Purpose Objectives

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which family background influences the children’s choice of Biology as a school subject in Form Five.

1.2.2 The Specific Purpose Objectives

Specifically, this study seeks to find out the extent to which:

1. The educational level of parents influence their children choice of Biology as a school subjects
2. The financial status of parents influences their children’s choice of Biology as a school subject.