INFLUENCE OF FAMILY SOCIO-ECONOMIC- STATUS ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS

The study investigated the influence of family socio economic status on secondary school students’ academic achievement in mathematics. Based on the purpose of the study three research questions were posed answered and three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 16,886 SS2 students from Owerri Education zone of Imo State. A sample of 866 students was drawn using proportionate sampling technique. The instruments for data collection are Socio-economic Status Scale and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT). The validity of the instruments was done by two experts two from Measurement and Evaluation and one expert from Mathematics Education. The reliability of the instruments were 0.81 and 0.72 determined using test retest method. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while t-test and AONVA were used to test the hypotheses. Results of the study indicated that family type, parents’ occupation and educational level of parents, did not have significant influence on students’ achievement in mathematics. Consequently, it is recommended that Parents should continue to get involved in their children’s academic progress by monitoring their activities in and out of school, ensuring that home work is done, providing all necessary materials they need in school and meeting with their teachers when the need arises.