INFLUENCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF PARENTS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ENUGU EDUCATION ZONE OF ENUGU STATE

This study examined the influence of socio-economic status of parents on the academic performance of secondary school students in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 1,353 teachers. Of these 368 were male teachers and 985 were female currently serving in the 31 government owned secondary schools in Enugu Education Zone. 20% of the population participated in the study. Thus, giving the sample size of teachers to be 271. A40 itemed questionnaire developed by the researcher was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three (3) research experts. Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate was used to ascertain the internal consistency of the entire instrument which is .88. Data was collected through the help of three research assistants and were used to analyze the four research questions using mean and standard deviation, the hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. The result obtained from the analysis showed that Parental qualification, background, income and occupation influence the academic performance of secondary school students in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State to a great extent. The study revealed also that there is no significance difference in the mean scores of male and female secondary school teachers on the extent to which parental qualification, background, income and occupation influence the academic performance of secondary school students in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. Hence, the researchers recommended, among others, that those parents with high academic qualification should be involved as resource persons.