THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS AND GENDER ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT’S IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study explores the influence of parental Socio-economic Status and Gender on the Academic Achievement of Senior Secondary School students in Kano state. Three research objectives with one corresponding research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. An ex-post facto research design was employed for the study. The study adopted expo-facto design. The population of the study consist of all SSIII students who have taken 2020/2021 session qualifying examination in Kano Municipal education zone out of which a sample of 346 students were drawn as sample. Socioeconomic status questionnaire (SESQ) is used as data collection instruments. The instruments were validated and found to have reliability index of 0.89. Simple percentage and independent sample t-test were used in analyzing the data. Computed result revealed that majority of the students belongs to the category of high level of parental socioeconomic status. The study equally revealed that students’ academic achievement significantly differs on the account of parental socioeconomic status (t= 4.576, p= .000, p < .05) among Senior Secondary School students in Kano state and gender (t= -2.270, p= .024, p < .05). In line with the findings the study recommended that Government should find ways of developing and increasing socio-economic of the peoples so that no students will be left behind due to low level of socio-economic status of their parents. Also Parents should continue to support and guide their children to maximize their performances in school system for them to excel in their academic performance since parental supports maximize academic performance of students and minimized student’s failure level. Parents should try to invest the little they possess on educational development of their children so as to equalize and minimize the disparity in academic performance of the (girls and boys) children. School counselors, should try to guide male students on how to bridge the existing gap in academic achievement between them and their counterpart.