THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL ECONOMIC FACTORS ON PUPIL’S PERFORMANCE

AT MKANDAWIRE PRIMARY SCHOOL

RAPSON TEMBO

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL

MANAGEMENT, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF SECONDARY TEACHERS DIPLOMA AT EVELYN HONE COLLEGE

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DECLARATION

This research project is my original work and has not been presented for a diploma in

any other College.

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DEDICATION

This study is dedicated to my family and my father Mike Tembo.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I sincerely thank the almighty God who has given me good mental health to undertake and
accomplish this task. I thank and appreciate my participant for providing me with the required
information without which this work would not have been completed.

My gratitude to Ms. Nyoni the acting deputy headmistress for giving me an opportunity to
undertake this research at Mkandawire primary school.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration................................................................................................................1

Dedication................................................................................................................ 2

Acknowledgements.................................................................................................. 3

Table of contents.......................................................................................................4

SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………. 5

Background of the study............................................................................................ 5

Description of the student ………………………………………………………… 6

Aims of the study …………………………………………………………………. 7

SECTION TWO: ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS …………………………………... 7

Case History ……………………………………………………………………………… 7

Findings ………………………………………………………………………………...… 8

Diagnosis of The Problem ………………………………………….……………………. 8

SECTION THREE: INTERVENTION ........................................................................... 9

Target Area ………………………………………………………………………………. 9

Evaluation ………………………………………………………………………………... 10

Reflection …………………………………………………………………………………. 10

SECTION FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION …………………… 10

Concluding Statement ……………………………………………………………………… 11

Recommendation ……………………………………………………………………………. 12

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References …………………………………………………………………………………. 14

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………………. 15

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SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION

Socio-economic status (SES) is often measured as a combination of education, income and

occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as the social status or class of an individual or group.
Low socio-economic status and its correlates, such as lower education, poverty and poor health,
ultimately affect our societies as a whole. Research indicates that children from low social
economic status (SES) households and communities develop academic skills more slowly
compare to children from higher socio-economic status group. Aiken and Barbarin (2008) noted
that, the school system in low social economic status communities are often under resource and
have negatively affected student’s academic progress.

It is of importance to examine what factors influence students’ performance to have a better

understanding of what benefits or hinders one’s educational attainment. By gaining a better
understanding of what affects student performance policies would be critically analyzed to
determine which are beneficial and those that need amendment.

Education is the best legacy a nation can give to her citizens. This is because the development of
any nation depends on the educational attainment of her citizenry and the quality of education of
such a nation. Education does not only provide knowledge and skills but also inculcates values to
students

Background to the Study

One of the most debated issues among educational professionals is the correlation between the
academic achievement and socio-economic status of pupils. A prevalent argument is that the
socioeconomic status of a student has a major effect on his/her academic achievement. Academic
achievement in many secondary schools in districts which have a high number of low socio-
economic pupils has been generally low in national examinations (Ellis, 2008).

Curry (1996) lamented that parent becomes poor due to their hard measures, they can no longer
shelter, and clothing and special need of their children in school such as provision of textbook,
school uniforms and good medical bills cannot be met

Many rural and sub-urban dwellers can no longer pay the school fees of their children. Children
are made to engage in subsistence farming and become housemaids or engage in other menial

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jobs to support their academic pursuit. The health status of the children which could also be
traceable to parental socio-economic background can be another factor that can affect the
academic performance of the student. Adewale (2002) had reported that in a rural community
where nutritional status is relatively low and heath problem are prevalent, children academic
performance is greatly hindered. This assertion is again hinged on nature of parental socio-
economic background.

Home background according to program international studies assessment (PISA) (2000)

influence academic and educational success of student. Status reinforces the activities and
functioning of the teacher and students. The quality of parents and home background of student
goes a long way to predict the academic performances of student. Child from poor home may
suffer because there may be no money to pay school fees, purchase book, uniforms, and other
schools’ materials, such child may play truant, thus his performance in school may be adversely
affected shittu (2004). Similarly, good parenting supported by strong economic home
background could enhance strong academic performance of the child

The quality of students‟ performance remains at top priority for educators. It is meant for making
a difference locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Educators, trainers and researchers have
long been interested in exploring variables contributing effectively for quality of performance of
learners. These variables that affect students‟ quality of academic achievement is made inside
and outside the school. And these may be termed as student factors, family factors, school
factors and peer factors (Crosnoe, Johnson and Elder, 2004).

Unfortunately, defining and measuring the quality of education is not a simple issue and the
complexity of this process increases due to the changing values of quality attributes associated
with the different stakeholders‟ view point (Blevins, 2009).

Description of the student

The child study was conducted on a pupil named Ruth Banda who was born in 2005 5th April.
The pupil had an average height and was dark in completion. The named pupil had no known
health problems and was quite interactive with her colleges.

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Aim of the study

To establish social-economic factors affecting academic performance of learners in the

Education sector.

SECTION TWO: ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS.

Case History

Across the world, educational researchers and practitioners as well as parents and other
education stakeholders have expressed increasing concern about the academic achievement of
pupils in high schools. Studies of the correlates add evidence of academic achievement have
been a major concern in most developed countries in the last four decades. Low academic
standards constitute a problem that demands attention. , the quality of education at public
primary level is still a major problem in some districts especially those in pockets of poverty.
The academic students are motivated by their parent through provision of educational materials
like text books, exercise books, computers etc. and other are not. Other students come to school
properly feed others do not.

Many of the pupils may not have a close relationship with teachers and may restrict their social
relationships among peers. As this child was interactive, she was very selective when it comes to
the friends she had, all seemed to be in the same category of social status. Most children of the
same social economic status we on get along well with peers of the same level.

When words like poverty where mentioned the pupil would display a facial expression of
discomfort and a little shame sometimes the meeting with the child would just be a mere chat
rather than discussing the main issues which would interrupt a great atmosphere. Talking about
low social economic status to child in this state may rise an amount of shame and the child may
isolate themselves from her peers.

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Findings

Parents’ occupation

The child was asked where her parents work and what kind of job they have. Her mother wasn’t
working anywhere whereas her father was a truck driver. With a low standard job, the income of
the parents tends to be low, the income of the parent has a huge impact on the child’s social
economic status. If parents have a poor job the child won’t be able to attend better schools and
the parents may struggle to pay necessary fees to facilitate school activities.

Challenges with studies

Challenges with studies were investigated. The pupil mentioned that studying from home was
another tough activity to do away from the school. This was her challenge because her room was
a bit crowded with her siblings which would disturb her studies from the bedroom. She
mentioned that sometimes they would be a lot of pupil at their premises taking alcohol due the
fact that they were selling it from home.

Attendance of better schools

According to Ruth Banda she had only attended private schools when she was at nursery level.
This is because upper levels were costly and her parents could not afford better private schools
which forced her to switch to government schools which were way cheaper but at some point,
with lower quality of education due to insufficient resources in these schools

Number of meals in a day

The pupil was questioned on how many times she has meals in a day. In response to the question
the pupil mention that she had enough meals in a day except when she was at school during
launch and that she wasn’t provided with enough money sustain her when at school.

Diagnosis of the problem

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Looking at the pupil’s presentation of information it be concluded that the pupil has a low social
economic status. As mentioned in the definition above Socio-economic status (SES) is often
measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized
as the social status or class of an individual or group. And these are the areas in which the pupil
is lacking. It has been identified that the pupil’s parents have a low income due to their
occupation and the pupil has also attended under resource schools in many instances.

SECTION THREE: INTERVENTION

Target Area

Home Work

To encourage the child to handle take away task on her own simple and short home works given
so that she can develop a character to deal with tasks along at home in spite of the challenges she
may face. Home works were also given to enhance high performance and self-efficacy. Since
doing home work from home was sometimes an issue the child was advised to get help from
friends while still and school and from her neighbors whom she considered would be worthy to
help.

Counseling

Counseling was another tool that was used to help the child cop with her situation. The child was
encouraged to work extra for the betterment of her future and realize that what she was passing
through was not state that would last. Through counselling she visualized a greater future and focus on
her dream career. She was given word of self-advocacy, social challenges and self-esteem. She was also
encouraged to stand for herself against negative messages from the society that may affect her
academic achievement.

Clubs

The child was encouraged to participate in school clubs in order to provide her with an
opportunity to engage herself in new roles, for example the leadership roles which she may not
encounter if she remained isolated and looking down on herself. Joining these clubs would

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enable her explore her identity and being a helper in a service club. She would also have a
chance to have relationship with peers and adults which would provide social support, friendship
and caring.

Evaluation

When the child was given home work to do she would make no effort but rather stay away from
class sometimes if the teacher was too strict in ensuring the home work was done. With some
help to boast her self-efficacy the child show some minor improvements as she did most of the
take away task especially in computer studies which was instructed by the researcher. The pupil
also become an active member in a debate club which helped her in English vocabulary and
public speaking gradually. However, creating relationships with many other friends unlike her
social-economic status was still a challenge as well as dealing with negative social messages in
the society.

Reflection

School children come from different social-economic backgrounds which may affect the
academic performance of a pupil. It is important as a teacher to take a step to analyze a pupil
with poor performance before reacting in any manner. With good understanding of the pupil a
teacher may take appropriate action like counselling for instance. Pupils go through a lot and if
their case is left an attended to the pupil may remain just within their circle of problems.

Low social-economic status may range from different aspects. Which would be poor income for
the parents, low standard jobs, failure to provide shelter, clothing to special educational needs
such as text books, school uniforms and health medical bills. As such a child with such a status
would abscond from class, fail to do his/her homework and isolate herself from friend. Paying
great attention and identifying troubling issues to the pupil is of great concern.

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SECTION FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

There are various factors inside and outside school that contribute to the quality of academic
performance of students. This study only focused on a number of these factors that influence the
student’s achievement. The key aspect for the educators is to educate their students effectively so
that they may be able to show quality performance in their academics. To achieve this objective,
it is necessary for the educators to understand better about the factors that may contribute in the
academic success of student

The academic performance of the students can as well be affected negatively by parent’s
academic background. Parent who do not go beyond elementary or secondary schools are not
able to give proper help to their children in their educational problem. Hawkes (1995) in his
research study had a contrary finding that, parent educational attainment, does not have effect on
student academic achievements

This finding also revealed that the occupation of parents has a great influence on the academic
performance of the students. This is in support of Wolfie (2006) who in his research work
observed that he choice of occupation as the main focus of man wealth and status which
influences the academic achievements of children. The finding in this research work is also in
line with Okun Milton (2008) in his work on social class differences and Nigeria children entry
behavior, in geography” consider parents’ occupation as the determinants of one’s social class

The finding also revealed that parental annual income influenced the academic performance of
the students. The finding in this research work is in line with the work of Okeke (2009) who
agreed that wealthy parents will not mind organizing extra lessons and employ home teachers for
their children after school hours. Adewole (2005) believed in his book that family income may
have a direct impact on a child’s academic outcome or variation in achievement could simply be
functions of the school the child attends

Conclusion

The findings from this study and the conceptual frame work have clearly show that socio-
economic factors have a dominant impact on the school achievement of the adolescent. The
important of socio-economic has clearly been emphasized as crucial in the adolescent life. The

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relationship between the socio-economic factors and academic performance cannot be over
emphasized. It creates an enabling environment, which goes a long way in influencing the
outlook of the adolescent. An adolescent that has access to good food, health facilities, school
books, and other materials is prone to display quick understanding and increase intelligence
specially where there is strict supervision by both parents and teachers. Generally, the higher
socio-economic families have educational facilities at home for their children to manipulate very
early in life. They also send their children to better schools and buy the required text books. They
encourage their children to study when they are back from school and persuade the
underachieving ones to see the school counsellors, and this goes a long way to improve academic
achievement of the adolescent children.

Recommendations

Based on the findings the following recommendations were made. i. Parents that fall within the
high socio-economic status should assist schools in the area of educational development by
voluntarily providing learning materials to the less privilege children. For Education constitutes
an important industry in developing countries like Zambia as it provides the required manpower
in the development process. Parents should therefore consider the adolescents education as a
rewarding investment and make all the necessary provision for them to be properly trained to
became good and productive citizen in the society.

Guidance and counselling services should be emphasized especially in government and public
schools to aid adolescents with problem. Which usually emanate from emotional distress. The
emergence and wide spread of private schools across the nation has made it impossible for
governments schools to function properly. This is because most of our teachers and the rich
people in the country prefer the private schools to public school for their children while the less
privilege have no option but to continue with the public school. In order to balance the wide gap,
government should restructure all public schools across the country by ensuring that qualified
teacher is recruited and well paid. Also, basic amenities should be provided for the public
schools to ensure that standard is maintained.

School fees, tuition fees, and all other academic level should be made affordable to the parents.
There is no more free education and even the so-called free education is not actually free,

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exorbitant money is paid as school fees and all sorts of levy/fees. Some students drop out of
schools as result of inability to pay fees.

Government should introduce free educations to help the less privilege. Scholarships are
reducing with a rapid rate. these scholarships that are meant for the less privilege are being
channeled to the rich people because educations sectors have been politicized. Schools have been
turned to financial institution and business centers. Government and non-governmental
organization (NGO) should encourage every citizen to educate by providing scholarship scheme
to the less privilege. Doing scholarship with sincerity of purpose will enable the less privilege
children benefits from such scheme. vii. The economic crisis in Nigeria suggest that greater
percentage of the population in Nigeria are living below poverty line and for growth to be
achieved in educational system especially in the public schools, Nigeria has to address the issue
of poverty, bridge the gap.

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REFERENCES

Balantine, J.H. et al (2008) A Sociological Approach to Education 3rd ed. London: Pine Forge
Press.

Holland, J.L., Powell, A.B., & Fritzsche, B.A. (1997). Self-directed search professional user’s
guide. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources

Lim, C., & A’Ole-Boune, H. (2005). Diversity competencies within early childhood teacher
preparation: Innovative practices and future directions. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher
Education.

New American Alliance. (2009). The economic impact of the achievement gap in America’s
schools

Cookson, P.S (1998) Program planning for the training and continuing education for adults:
North American perspectives. Krieger Publishing Company.

Parker, F. L., Boak, A. Y., Griffin, K. W., Ripple, C., & Peay, L. (1999). Parent-child
relationship, home learning environment, and school readiness. School Psychology Review

Egbezor, D and Okanezi, B. (2008) Non- Formal Education as a tool to Human Resource
Development: An Assessment. International Journal of Scientific Research in Education.

Jarvis, P. (2011) The Sociology of Adult and Continuing Education. Vol 79. New York:
Routledge Library Editions.

Kombo,D.K. and Tromp, D.L. (2009) Proposal and Thesis writing. An introduction: Paulines
Publications

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Appendix

What social factors affected the pupil’s performance at Mkandawire primary school?

The pupil was asked how she academically performed

Do you have enough meals in a day?

What economic factors affected her performance at school?

How many days were you absent from school altogether during the last term?

Where do your parents work and What kind of job is it?

How her social economic background affected her performance

Do you get any assistance with school exercises from your parents?

How often have you attended private schools?

Do your parents have problems to pay your school fees or buying you learning materials?

Do you face any challenges studying from home?

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