Influence of Parental Socioeconomic Status on Student’s Academic Performance among Secondary Schools in Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the influence of socio-economic status of parents on academic performance of their children among selected senior secondary schools in Taraba state, Nigeria. The study utilizes primary data which is collected through questionnaire administration among the sampled secondary schools. Simple percentage and tabulation are employed to analysed the collected data. Among others, findings indicate that socio-economic status of parents influence the academic performance of their children in senior secondary schools. The study recommends that government should endeavor to popularize the idea of participatory management and funding of secondary education. This will reduce the level of inequality in education between the rich parents (those with high socio-economic status) and poor parents with lower status. Also, since parent’s educational qualifications do not influence academic performance of their children (to an extent), there is need for more vocational and technical education centers to be established across Jalingo local government with the view to reducing the effect of peer group influence or negativity associated with divorced/separated families.