SECONDARY SCHOOLS LEARNERS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN BUSINESS STUDIES IN ZARIA AND GIWA EDUCATION ZONES, KADUNA STATE

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SECONDARY SCHOOLS LEARNERS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN BUSINESS STUDIES IN ZARIA AND GIWA EDUCATION ZONES, KADUNA STATE

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the ―Secondary Schools Students‘ Socio-economic Background and Academic Achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa Education Zones, Kaduna State‖. To achieve the aim of this research, four objectives were formulated in line with research questions and hypotheses such as to; determine the secondary schools students‘ socio-economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies between male and female, examine the secondary schools students‘ socio-economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies between boarding and day school and ascertain secondary schools students‘ socio-economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies between private and public in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State. The study used survey method that covers all public secondary schools in Zaria and Giwa education zones in Kaduna State. The population of the study comprised of 81 Principals, 684 Teachers and 648 school prefects making a total of 1413. A sample of 413 respondents which consisted of 24 Principals, 205 Teachers and 195 School Prefects were used meaning that 413 copies of questionnaire were distributed. The instrument used for the data collection was structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by the researcher supervisors to ensure its reliability. Crombach Alpha was used during the pilot study. This yielded a reliability coefficient of r = 0.87 and significant level of 0.05. Four hypotheses were postulated and the testing was done by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).  All the four hypotheses were retained. The study reveals that female students develop high interest in Business Studies than male students due to the initial business upbringing by the parents especially mothers who engage in petty trading in secondary schools in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State. The study conclude that Female students develop high interest in Business studies than the male student and female students offering Business Studies do not most of the time go beyond secondary education unlike the male students in secondary schools in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State. It was recommended that, parents should encourage both male and female students to develop high interest in Business Studies by provision of essential needs to aids studies such as relevant text books on related subjects and improved socio economic standard of the children and there should be proper provision of numerous basic amenities by the government for secondary schools in both rural and urban area that will contributes to academic achievement in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna

State.

 

 

 

 

 

                                         Operational Definition of Terms

Socio-economic Background: can refer to the family incomes of the immediate neighborhood.

Academic Achievement: is the outcome of education the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals.

Business Studies: is one of the compulsory subjects offered by junior secondary school students in Nigeria. Business Studies is the unit of vocational and technical education.

Boarding Schools: are an intensive form of education, in which students live at school, and visit their families only for weekends and vacations unlike day school.

Gender: is the amount of masculinity and felinity found in a person and obviously while there are mixtures of both in human beings, the normal male has a preponderance of

felinity.

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background to the Study

Nigeria like any other country has witnessed series of political instability with various effects on educational policies at federal and state government levels. This gradually laid the foundation of fallen standard in education at secondary school level which caused differential academic achievement of male and female students in secondary schools. In the quest of finding survival, the nation has evolved services for socio-economic and educational measures but these have not improved the socio-economic status of families influencing students‘ academic achievement in Nigeria (Mailgram, 2000)

According to Olotu (1994), in the quest of finding survival, the nation has evolved serves of socio-economic and educational measures and policies such as Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), Austerity Measures, Universal Basic Education (UBE) and devaluation of Naira. These measures have not improved the socio-economic and educational status of families in the country; they rather increased their suffering and widened the socio-economic gap between families (Chime, 2004).

Socio-economic status is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as social standing or class of an individual or group. When viewed through a social class lens, privilege, power and control are emphasized. Furthermore, an examination of socio-economic as a gradient or continuous variable reveals inequities in access to and distribution of resources.  Socio-economic is relevant to all realms of behavioral and social science, including research, practice, education and advocacy.

Research indicates that students from low socio-economic households and communities develop academic (Morgan, Farkasa, Hillemeier, /&Maczuga, 2009). Initial academic skills are correlated with the home environment, where low literacy environments and chronic stress negatively affect a child‘s pre-academic skills. The school systems in low socioeconomic communities are often under-resourced, negatively affecting students‘ academic progress (Aikens&Barbarin, 2008). Inadequate education and increased dropout rates affect male and female student‘s academic achievement perpetuating the low socio-economic status of the community.

Business Studies is a unit of vocational and technical education. According to Ohiwerei (2005), this programmes started late in Nigerian Educational system. Vocational business studies stated as commercial clerical training centre that were needed in the office. By 1995, both government and privately owned day and evening business schools were established in various part of the country. According to Esene and Ohiwerei (2005), Business studies subjects have not been popular in Nigerian secondary schools because of the bias against vocational education. The public perception of business subject, which form part of vocational education, is education for the school dropouts. This further reinforced by the attitude of Nigerian parents who prefer the conventional grammar schools to business schools whose curricular were directed towards the training of secretarial and clerical personnel. This erroneous impression was corrected by the release of the national policy on education.

The National Policy on Education (1976), which recommended the 6-3-3-4 educational systems (Fabunmi, 1986) was instrumental to the inclusion of business subject in the secondary school curriculum. The implementation of the 6-3-3-4 systems in 1982 brought many reforms into the educational system in Nigeria. At the junior secondary school level pre-vocational subjects were introduced to the curriculum while vocational educations were introduced at the senior secondary level. The focus of pre-vocational was to exposed students at junior secondary level to the world of work through exploration. Such exposure will enable junior secondary school students make intelligent career choice and also intelligent assumptions are practical Agricultural, Home economics, Introductory Technology and business studies. Business studies consist of aspects of book-keeping, shorthand, typewriting, commerce, office practice and computer, which are integrated. The National Board for Technical Education, while supporting the integration reported:

The new concept of pre-vocational course at the junior secondary school level is different from the traditional one. Examples, the business studies component Transmit narrow commercial knowledge, which restricted pupils to take one of typewriting, shorthand, accounting, economics etc. for five years. The new approach emphasizes the integrated nature of business studies and includes of secretarial skills (i.e shorthand and typewriting), accounting, business method and commerce.

A school qualification is strongly associated with social disadvantages primarily determined whether the student accessed post-school education and if so, at what level participation. It is a well known fact that secondary school students performance in academic activities vary, some students perform better than the other, many disadvantaged students feels the length of their students career would be limited by their finances, rather than by their academic ability and this makes them lack behind in their academic achievement. Clemens and Oelike (1967) and Emeka (1984) in their studies shows the cause of academic achievement to a combination of personal institutional factors. Personal factors relate to the individual intelligence knowledge and ability. Institution factors are family or parental influence, school related factors.

Enclosed within the institutional factors are teacher related factors and living condition, high level of illiteracy, poverty and low socio-economic status with high rate of paternal and maternal deprivation of student academic needs which was necessitated by poor socioeconomic situation of Nigeria has thrown many families into unhold financial problems such as poverty and lack of money to purchase text books, payment of school fees, transport services, television/radio, complete school uniform and provide the best for their children. This poor parental care with gross deprivation of social and economic need of a child usually leads to poor students‘ academic achievement of secondary school students in Zaria

and Giwa Education Zones, Kaduna State.

In April, 1999 the Federal Government of Nigeria established the National Examination Council by the former Head of State Abdul Salami Abubakar to take over the responsibilities of the National Board of Education Measurement. The services rendered by the body include Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (Internal and External) with six years of basic education, three years of junior secondary education and three years of senior secondary education.  Junior secondary school certificate examination is intended for candidates in the third year of their junior secondary education in federal unity college and other federal secondary schools. Private secondary schools also take part in junior secondary certificate examination.

It is against this background that researchers tried to find out the Secondary School

Students Socio-Economic Background and Academic Achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa Education Zones, Kaduna State of Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In past few years, it has been noticed that students‘ academic performance from low socio-economic background is not as good as those from high socio-economic background, secondary school students are not enjoying an equal level of success within secondary education as their more advantaged peers due to the students' difference socio-economic background Chime (2004). Day and Boarding Junior Secondary School students‘ socioeconomic background can result to the many problems such as; truancy, accidents, unwanted pregnancy, lack of seriousness, favoritism, drug abuse, examination malpractice and so on. But even those who are likely to have suffered from a number of barriers which may have hindered their academic progress and deterred them from continuing any further. Despite the effort of researchers, parents, teachers and government, the poor performance of secondary school JSS students is still a recurring problem that is imperative at this time.

Onasanya (2008) opines that Business Studies education in Nigeria for long had been criticized for not quite preparing JSS students for effective living in the society as result of inappropriate utilization of instructional methods in Business Studies classroom. In support of the above, Okpalama (2008:65) maintains that the ―relationship between socio economic background of male and female JSS students achievement in business studies education enclosed with several related factors and poor socio-economic situation of the country has thrown many families into untold financial problems such as poverty and lack of money to purchase text books, payment of school fees, transport services, television/radio, complete school uniform and provide the best for their children. This poor parental care with gross deprivation of social and economic need of a child usually leads to poor students‘ academic achievement of Junior Secondary School students in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The following objectives are designed to:

  1. determine the relationship between male and female secondary schools students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State;
  2. examine the relationship between boarding and day secondary schools students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State;
  3. ascertain the relationship between private and public secondary schools students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State; and
  4. find out the relationship between rural and urban secondary schools students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.

 

 

 

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions are asked:

  1. Is there relationship between Male and Female secondary schools students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State?
  2. What is the relationship between Boarding and Day secondary schools students‘ socioeconomic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State?
  3. Is there any relationship between Private and Public secondary schools students‘ socioeconomic background and academic achievement in Business in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State?
  4. Are there relationship between Rural and Urban secondary schools students‘ socioeconomic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State?

1.5   Research Hypotheses

In this study, the following null hypotheses were tested:

  1. There is no significant difference between Male and Female JSS students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in secondary school in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State;
  2. There is no significant difference between Boarding and Day JSS students‘ socio economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in secondary school in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.;
  3. There is no significant difference between Private and Public JSS students‘ socio- economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in secondary school in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State; and
  4. There is no significant difference between Rural and Urban JSS students‘ socio economic background and academic achievement in Business Studies in secondary school in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.

1.6 Basic Assumptions

This study will be achieved base on the following assumptions:

  1. It is believed that junior secondary school students‘ achievement in Business Studies in secondary schools in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State is gender related.
  2. It is believed that the boarding students would likely have better academic achievement in Business Studies than the day students in secondary schools Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.
  3. It is believed that relationship exists between private and public students achievement in

Business Studies in secondary schools in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.

  1. It is believed that relationship exists between rural and urban students achievement in

Business Studies in secondary schools in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State.

1.7 Significance of the Study

This study will be significant in highlighting the role of socio-economic of parents towards their children‘s academic achievement in secondary schools by enlightening the teachers on the need for male and female students‘ participation in their lessons and their role will change from being passive listeners and excellence in their final examination in

JSSCE.

Policy makers and stakeholders in society will benefit from this study in the sense that the study will create awareness of providing all necessary needs for their children in school for purpose of their academic improvement in Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna

State.

Teachers will also benefit from the study because as more male and female students are clarified of the meaning and purpose of business studies subject, many will embrace it thereby generating their job secured. Generally the parents and society stands to benefit from the study as graduate of business studies will come back to serve the society thereby fulfilling the manpower requirement of the society.

This study will be significant in the sense that government will be able to find out the relationship that exist between socio economic background of male and female students achievement on Business Studies subject. As against the former oxford system which is limited to classroom setting, the knowledge of Business Studies subject extended beyond that in which a change of observable behavior is indicated in the students through manipulative, skills, techniques and attitudes.

Since small scale business constitutes the highest percentage of business establishment not even the local government area but also the whole nation if the above statement is true, then they are great importance to the entire nation‘s economy and industrial development.

1.8 Scope of the Study

     This study is to assess the Secondary Schools Students Socio-Economic Background and

Academic Achievement in Business Studies in Zaria and Giwa Education Zones, Kaduna

State. The study was limited to some selected junior secondary schools in the area. This is because the researcher resides in the state and as such had the knowledge of the area and its environs.

However, it is hoped that the result of this work was applicable to not only Zaria and Giwa education zones, Kaduna State, but to others state in Nigeria.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS LEARNERS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN BUSINESS STUDIES IN ZARIA AND GIWA EDUCATION ZONES, KADUNA STATE

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