AN ASSESSMENT OF PARENTAL STATUS AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study
Historically, all societies usually establish hierarchies, among their members, social-stratification is universal. Human beings have invented numerous ways to classify people by wealth, power, prestige, ability, education, occupation: even through where they live.

According to person, Stephanie and Deborah (2001), socio economic status is an expression which is used to differentiate between people’s relative status in the community regarding family income, political power, educational background and occupational status.

The academic performance of a child is usually determined by parental education level, parental occupational statist and income level (Jeynes, 2002).

The term “social class” originally referred to group of people holding similar roles in the economic processes of production and exchange such as landowners or tenants, employers or employees. Such position correspond to different levels of status, prestige, and access to political power.

However, social class eventually took on a more generic meaning and to refer to all aspects of a person’s rank on the social hierarchy (Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2002).
Belonging to social class is generally accompanied by a perception of class identity.

In this sense, social class is not merely a personal attribute, but also a contextual variable that characterizes a group of people.

The shared culture of a particular class influences, and is influenced by people’s attitude and life styles.

Social class may be ascribed at both as with royalty or nobility, or with castes in human societies. More commonly, however, a person’s position at birth is modified by their children’s achievement, typically through education, occupational, or income.

Class can not be measured directly: instead, indicators of socio-economic status, typically based on educational attainment, income, wealth, or occupation are used.

Education is the best legacy parents can give to their children, the development of the nation starts from the family.

When the family succeed in teaching and impacting good value to their children, the country becomes a better country and place to line.
It is generally believed that the basis for any true development must commence with the development of human resources and will help to make education a fundamental development of the nation.

This is because the development of any nation or country depends largely on the quality of education.
A socio-economic status is a definite background variable that represents a feature of the social structure in the society (Oakes & Rossi 2003), it is a fact that families where the parents are privileged educationally, socially and economically promote a higher level of achievement in their offspring.

It is understood that low socio-economic status of parents may negatively and depressingly affect students’ academic performance and achievement because due to low socio-economic status of parents, a student does not have access to important resources and that generate additional stress and tension at home (Eamon, 2005), Henyneman (2005) stated that student’s may not show effective performance in school where parental socio-economic status is low.

Saifi and Mahmood (2011) stated that socio-economic status is a combined measure of economic and social position of an individual or a family relative to others on the basis of income, education and occupation.

Farooq, Chaudhry, Shafiq and Berhanu (2011) concluded that the higher level of socio-economic status of parents is the best indicator which plays a fundamental role in promoting quality of students’ achievement.

In a nutshell, the influence of socio-economic status of parents on their children’s academic performance cannot be undermined
Socio-economic status is the combination of economic and sociological measures of an individual’s work experience and economic and social position of an individual or family in relation to others on the basis of income, educational level and occupational status.

For the analysis of a family socio-economic status, the household income, education of earner and occupation are checked as well combined income compared with an individual, when their own attributes are assessed. Socio-economic status is generally divided into two categories i.e., high socio-economic and low socio-economic, to explain the two aspects, a family which an individual may fall into, Suleman, Aslam, Shakir, Akhtar, Hussaini & Akhtar (2012) found that those children whose socio-economic status was strong are likely to show better academic performance and those with poor socio-economic status may show poor and unsatisfactory academic performance.
It is obvious that the students’ performance is a product of some factors such as gender, intelligence, aptitude and attitude.

Inborn traits are organic factor that sustain other structures. Cultural values, social influence and school system influence (Adeleke, 2012).
Academic performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers. Academic performance is the ability to study and remember facts and being able to communicate the facts and knowledge verbally or down on papers.

The academic performance of students may be negatively correlated with the low parental status or parental socio-economic level as it may prevent individual in gaining access to sources and resources of learning (Duke, 2000 & Eamon, 2005).

Flegin (2005) reported that in educational institutions, success is measured by academic performance or how well as student meets the standards set out by the institution.

Performance of students in accounting has not been impressive as reported by researchers such as Drennan and Rhoda (2010), and the reason for this needs to be investigated.
Financial accounting is a business subject offered by students in Nigeria secondary schools.

According to Udoh (2003), financial accounting is a specialized area of instruction that deals directly with business skills and techniques, business knowledge and facts, others include business, understanding, economic understanding, business attitude and appreciation necessary to understand and adjust to the economic and social institution called “business”.

Financial accounting is a process involving gathering, storing, recording, classifying, verifying, measuring and summarizing financial transactions and subsequently interpreting and communicating information the owner and users of accounting information for decision making.
The central focus of this research study is Ogun State. Ogun State is a state in Southwestern Nigeria created in 1976.

It borders Lagos State to the state, Oyo and Osun States to the north, Ondo to the east and the Republic of Benin to the west.

Abeokuta is the capital and largest city in the state. As an indigene and resident of Abeokuta and for the fact that I attended both my primary and secondary school in Ogun State constitute the background in which this study on “parental status and students’ academic performance of senior secondary school students in accounting in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria” is based.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The issue of students’ poor performance in Nigeria secondary schools in which financial accounting is no exception is very alarming. Akinsolu (2002) observed that the students performance does not commensurate with the amount invested in educational sector.
Previous researches show that the students performance in West African Examination Council (2000) was not encouraging. West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 1998, 1999 and 2000 revealed 52.48%, 58.38% and 51.21% failure in financial accounting.
The mass failure in financial accounting might be attributed to many factors such as: poor method of teaching, incompetence on the part of the teachers, laziness on the part of the students, low socio-economic status of parents, inadequate time allocated to teaching and learning of financial accounting, poor E-learning environment and fall in general standard of education.
1.3 Research Questions
In line with each specific objectives of the study, answers were sought for the following research questions.
1. What is the influence of parental level of education on secondary school student’s academic performance in financial accounting in secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria?
2. What is the influence of parental occupation on secondary school students’ academic performance in financial accounting in some selected secondary school in Abeokuta?
3. What is the influence of parental social standing on secondary school students’ academic performance in financial accounting in some selected secondary school in Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria?
1.4 Research Hypotheses:
The following null hypotheses were tested in the cause of this study with central focus on secondary schools.
Main Hypothesis:
There is no significant difference between parental status and academic performance of senior school accounting students, in Ake Abeokuta, Ogun State.
H01: There is no significant difference between the parental level of education and students’ academic performance in financial accounting in Abeokuta Ogun state.
H02: There is no significant difference between the parental profession and student’ academic performance in financial accounting in Abeokuta Ogun State.
H03: There is no significant difference between the parental social standing and students’ academic performance in financial accounting in Abeokuta Ogun State.
1.5 Purpose of the Study
The general objective of this work is to assess the influence of parental status on students’ academic performance in financial accounting in secondary school in Ogun State Nigeria.

The specific objectives are to:
1. Assess the influence of parental level of education on secondary school students’ academic performance in financial accounting in some selected secondary schools, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
2. Determine the influence of parental profession in secondary school students’ academic performance in financial accounting in Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria.
3. Assess the influence of parental social standing on secondary school students’ academic performance in financial accounting in some selected secondary schools in Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria.
1.6 Significance of the Study
Findings of this study will be of immense benefit to teachers, parents, students, and education authorities.

The result will be of benefit to teachers because they will be able to identify the students from both high and low socio-economic status based on the parental level of education, parents’ occupational status, and social standing of the parents of the students and then be able to formulate and employ the methods suitable for teaching both the students from high and low socio-economic status.
The study will be of benefit to parents because it will provide information to them that there status determines the academic performance of their children, which can make or mar the academic performance of their children.

The information provided will erase the erroneous belief of blaming the teachers for poor academic performance of their children.
The findings of the study will equally be of benefit to students because it will provide information to them on how socio-economic status of their parents make or mar their academic performance, and this can be of help to the students that are from the parents of low socio-economic status to be studious and ambitious for high socio-economic status in future.
It will also be benefits to educational authorities such as Ministry of Education and Policy makers in education sector by using the findings in this study to address the problem of poor academic performance in financial accounting in Abeokuta Ogun State.
Finally, this study will contribute to the body of knowledge in general by providing direction to future researchers who may wish to further their investigation on similar topic.