INFLUENCE OF STUDENT’S SOCIO ECONOMIC BACKGROUND ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

ABSTRACT

Societies all over the world strive to achieve quantitative education for her citizens, in order to achieve this noble cause; so many factors must be put into consideration. Among them is the socio-economic status of parents, their academic background, the family background or the environment which the child will be raised. The gap in performance between students and academic excellence and skills constitute a great source of worry and serious concern as well as discomfiture to parents, school makers, policy makers and various governments responsible for the education of undergraduate students in various tertiary institutions. This study helps assessment of the influence of student’s socio economic background on the academic performance of integrated science undergraduate in the University of Benin.

A descriptive survey research design was adopted to accomplish the objectives of the study. The sample size consists of 65 accessible Integrated Science teachers The Instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire which was developed by the researcher and validated by the researcher's supervisor and two(2) other lecturers in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.726 using the Cronbach Alpha reliability co-efficient method.

The findings show that respondent does not the economic status of the parent has an impact on students’ academic performance and that respondent accepted that parents’ educational backgrounds have any impact on students’ academic performance and that respondents rejected the notion that children from high socio-economic background exhibit more skill than children from lower socio-economic background The study has found that socioeconomic status and access to resources are extremely important factors that influence student academic achievement and skills in different Socio-economic backgrounds among University of Benin students in Edo state. When access to resources is limited student from high socio-economic background tend to profit more and students from low socio-economic background suffer and lag behind in their academic achievement, the researcher recommend that educational planners and school administrators should always keep in mind the different socio-economic backgrounds when making laws that is related to financial burden on student. This will bridge the financial gap between students from different background and encourage more academic attainment and skill from both parties.