INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SOCIETAL CLASS AND PARENTAL INTERVENTION ON SCHOOL MODIFICATION OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS IN GIWA EDUCATTIONAL ZONE KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the influence of parental social class and parental intervention on school adjustment of Senior Secondary School Students in Giwa educational zone, Kaduna state. The study was guided by four research questions and four hypotheses. survey design was employed in the study.310 secondary students were used as the sample of the study from a population of 5,508. Randomsampling technique was adopted.Adjustment College Scale (ATCS), Parental Involvement Project (P.I.P) questionnaire and Parental Social Class Scale (PSCS) were the instruments used for data collection. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test hypotheses one and four and hypotheses two and three were tested using ANOVA. The findings revealed significant relationship between parental income and students‟ school adjustment with r=.514 and p=.000; significant differencewas found amongparents of different occupational status with regards to students school adjustment with f=219.142 and p=0.000; significant difference was fund among parentsofdifferent educational level on students‟ school adjustment with f= 134.158 and p=.000and finally, significant relationship between parental intervention and students‟ school adjustment was found with r=.871 and p=.000. It was recommended among othersthat parents should be sensitized on the impact of their social class on school adjustment of their children, they also need to effectively intervene in the life of their children for better school adjustment.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background to the Study

Education is the best legacy a nation can give to her citizens especially the youth. This isbecause the development of any nation or community depends largely on the quality of itseducation. It is generally believed that the basis for any true developmentmust commence with the development of human resources. Much then is said that formaleducation remains the vehicle for socio-economic development and Social mobilization inany society.

One of the significant processes occurring in human development is the transformation of the infant into a mature adult, undergoing long process of growth which enables him to acquire among others the use oflanguage, knowledge of his environment and many skills neededfor

interpersonalbehaviour (Mukherjee, 2007).  Family is the first agent of socialization in the society, it roles in managing children education at home and school as the first educators has long been considered important for children success in school. Every child has the capacity to succeed in school and in life generally. Yet, the life of some children are put at risk by their families for not giving them, the kind of care they need.

It is widely believed that if students are to maximise their potentialities from schooling they need full support of their patents. It is expected that parents should play a role not only in the promotion of their own children‟s achievement and adjustments but more broadly in school improvement and democratisation of school governance.The Nigeria government for example holds that parents need to fully participate in day to day school administration.

Bloom (as cited in Mdanda, 1997) demonstrates that, it is what parents do in the home that counts for learning development of their children. It therefore goes without saying that lack of encouragement, low quality of parents‟ language and lack of stimulating activity in the home will reduce the home‟s effectiveness as a learning environment.

The parents or guardians of students are responsible for providing the right home environment for them that will facilitate effective learning. Some factors within the home environment have been identified to influence school adjustment of the children. These factors include; parents educational background, parent economic status (at least an average financial status), parents‟ marital status, parental home location and parental level of intervention in education. The child‟s home environment influences his attainment in school. The home environmental variables can be manipulated to enhance students‟ school adjustment (obeta,2014).

Gordon (as cited in Mdanda, 1997) examines child upbringing based on the occupational level of the father, discovered that social class relates to values in child upbringing. The higher the person‟s social class position, the greater is the likelihood that he will value good direction for his children and himself. Children from formally better educated families are more likely to be good academically and fully relate well with others and maintain school rules and regulations.

The influence of home on students‟ adjustment can be characterized by the child‟s

relationship with other members in the household and other people that are successful in the society.

In most cases, the way parents spent their resource on their children‟s education is the same way

those children may adjust in the school.

It is widely said that if students are to maximize their potentialities from schooling, they will need full support of their parents.It is the home that makes a child to identify himself with the society, culture, religion, or social class. Thus the home continues to exercise a strong influence over the child‟s life and his school adjustment. It has been noted that homes differ in terms of significances in the social order. For instance, some home have more prestige, money, while some have wider experience and knowledge of how to operate within the society or school environment (Obeta, 2014).

The National Policy on Education (2004) states that the success of any system of education is hinged on proper planning, efficient administration, adequate financing and community participation.

It mentions that school systems and consequently their management and day-to-day administration shall grow out of the life and social ethos of the community. Therefore, the administrative machinery for the National education system shall be based on the same basic cardinal principles. It mentioned shared responsibility in funding and management (parental involvement inclusive). This is to say the National Policy favours the parental intervention and full participation of the parents and the community in general for guidance and school administration.

For proper parental intervention in the schools, Nigerian government put up a strategy for securing parental intervention in 1960s when Parent-Teachers Association (P.T.A) was introduced.

This is a strategy for encouraging parents‟ intervention and full partnership with schools. In another vein, the Nigerian government introduced School Based Management Committee (S.B.M.C) in 2009 to encourage parental and community intervention and support.

The home has a great influence on students‟ psychosocial, emotional, social and economic state since it has so many variables in the view of Ajila and Olutola (2007), the issue of home affects the individual since the parents are the first agents of socialization in the individual‟s life this is because the family background and context of a female child affects her reactions to life situation and the level of performance.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Generally behaviour problem in relation to schooladjustment has been a continuous process between the needs of the individual and the external forces since time immemorial. School is a place where people from different home environments, socio-economic status, social class, religious and cultural background come together to learn. Every one found in school needs to adjust to meet the needs, values, rules and regulations of the school. However, some factors that make it either easier or more difficult for students to adjust in school and thus learn in a better way.

Owing to students behaviours problems, school authorities and teachers are blamed for not performing their roles either through teacher-students or students-students‟ relationship.Better education does not just happen by chance. It is a product of various elements such as effective teaching and learning plus the effort ofteachers, schools, parents, students and their various home environment variables.In most cases the blames of poor performance of students in schools and their mal-adjusted behaviour is shifted to the teachers and school authorities. The problem of poor adjustment should be seen far beyond the teachers and the school authorities,negligent attitudes to their learners. Families and societies are other important factors that will never be left out as far as the poor adjustmentof children is concern. The kind of support and encouragement families give their children and the kind of influence the society gives to children plays very significant role in shaping them to become good or otherwise in school.

The families that provide to their children all that required in their learning and supervise them constantly make the children to perform better, than those that are left to their own fate. Similarly, the society that pave way to its children to acquire sound education irrespective of gender, religion or other things produces more intelligent and literate students than those ones that pay less attention to the education of their children.

In most cases the social class of a family determines the adjustment of its children in school. Those children from the rich family found to be more vibrant and intelligent in terms of academic performance than those from the poor family. This is so because those children from the rich family can afford all what it requires for their education such as learning materials, good food, and so forth. Without which effective learning will not take place.

The problem of this research therefore is to investigate the influenceSocial Class and Parental Intervention on School Adjustmentof Senior Secondary School Students in Giwa educational zone Kaduna State Nigeria.

 

 

1.3       Objectives of the Study

This study was designed to achieve the following objectives.

• To findout the relationship between parental income and students‟ school adjustment.
• To examine the differencesin the influence of parental occupational status on school adjustment among senior secondary students.
• To determine the differences in the influence of parental levels of education on school adjustment amongsenior secondary students.
• To find out relationship of parental intervention and students‟ school adjustment..

1.4        Research Questions

Based on the above objectives, the following research questions were raised.

1. How does parental income influence students‟ school adjustment?
2. How does parental occupational status influencestudents‟ school adjustment?
3. How doesparentallevel of education influence students‟ school adjustment?
4. How does parental intervention influence students‟ school adjustment?

1.5         Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses guidedthe study;

H0₁:     There is no significant relationship between parentalincomes‟ andstudents‟ school adjustment.

H0₂: There is no significant differencein the influenceofparentaloccupational statuson school adjustmentamongsenior secondary students.

H0₃: There is no significant differencein the influence of parentallevelsof education on school adjustmentamongsenior secondary students.

H0₄:     There is no significant relationship betweenparental interventions‟ and students‟ school adjustment

 

1.6        Basic Assumptions

For the purpose of this study, the following assumptions were made.

• Significant relationship may exist between parental income and students‟ school adjustment
• Significant difference may exist between parental occupational status and students‟ school

adjustment

• Significant difference may exist between parental level of education and student school adjustment
• Significant relationship may exist between parental intervention and students‟ school

adjustment

1.7        Significance of the Study

The prevalence of moral decadence, poor academic achievement recorded by the schools in

the last decade, educators have the belief that, this is as a result of poor handling of academic matters by the parents and students. It is in view of the above facts that researchers have over the years have been trying to investigate the ways of managing and improving the school system and the educational standard in general.The findings of this research titled influence of social class and parental intervention on school adjustment among senior secondary school students in Kaduna state aim to benefit the following.

• Parents: The study of this nature can be useful to parents as they send their children to school. They will under-stand thattheir level of intervention has values to their children school adjustment as the students may feel confident in handling their academic matters and this work will provide ways on how parents can take care of their children and how they can provide the basic needs for their children.
• Students: Parental intervention and social class of the parent will motivate and encourage students to adjust well and take their academic matters serious. It will also enable the children

of higher middle and low social class to understand their family socio-economics differences and adjust in school.

• School Authorities: The research will provide schools with the knowledge backed with facts and figures about the importance of parental intervention and their social class in the society on students‟ school adjustment and involve parents in day to day activities of the school.
• SchoolPsychologists and Counsellors: This study will be of significant to school psychologists and counsellors, because they are key actors of finding out mal-adjusted behaviour and proper solution to mal-adjusted behaviour.
• Curriculum Planners: In evaluating the roles parents play in the education of their children as well as how students‟ feel about their ability on academic task can influence their school adjustment.
• Education Policy Makers and Community Leaders: During policy planning and

developmental programmes they should put different parental social-economic status into consideration.

• In another vein, this research work will serve as a reference material to those who may wish to carryout research on a similar topic as this research may not be exhaustive due to limited time and lack of financial strength and the large population of the study, indeed, it is the prayer of the researcher that other prospective researchers will develop an interest in the research and expand to cover other educational zones.
• It is the hope of the researcher that the outcome of this work will add value to the existing body of knowledge by providing additional information.

1.8        Scope and Delimitation of the study

The study isdesign tocover the entire senior secondary schools of Kaduna state but it will not be feasible to cover all the schools in the state due to the size and time limitation. Against this background the research delimited to SS IIstudents both male and female and the scope is limited to Giwa Educational Zone which is made up of Giwa, Kudan and part of Sabon-gari local government areas of Kaduna state. The purpose is to examine the influence of parental social class and parental intervention on school adjustment senior secondary students in Giwa educational zone Kaduna state.

INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SOCIETAL CLASS AND PARENTAL INTERVENTION ON SCHOOL MODIFICATION OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS IN GIWA EDUCATTIONAL ZONE KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

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