INFLUENCE OF LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AND HOME BACKGROUND ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY ABUJA, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the study

A key goal of education is to ensure that every student has a chance to excel, both in school and life. Increasingly, children success in school determines their success as adults, determining whether and where they go to college, what professions they enter and how much they can earn.Education is an omnipotent phenomenon and an invaluable gift to mankind which influences the survival and development of human societies and cultures. It is generally accepted as an instrument excellence for achieving national, societal and personal development. It is an effective remedy for the removal of poverty in the society. Education is needed to be able to exploit and increases the value chain of natural resources. It ensures and enhances citizens‘ active participation in the democratic processes and developmental activities. This implies that the level of development and prosperity attained in future by a country shall be determined by its level of educational development.

The home has a great influence on student‘s psychological, emotional, social and economic state in the view of Ajila and Olutola (2007), the home affects the individual since parents are the first socializing agents in an individual‘s life. The school is responsible for the experiences that makes up the individual‘s life during school periods, yet parents and individual‘s experiences at home play tremendous roles in building the personality of the child and making the child what she is (Uwaifo, 2008).Home background plays major role in student‘s life and outside of the school, is the most important influence on student learning and include factors such as socioeconomic status, two parents versus single-parent -households, divorce, parenting practice and aspirations, maternal characteristics, family size and neighbourhood (Majoribanks, 1996).

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The environment at home is a primary socialization agent and influences a child‘s interest in school and aspirations for the future (Bali, 2003).Parental involvement has an important role in children‘s school performance.

A student‘s home environment can be seen as an agent that aid in the construction of student attitudes and school achievement. Martin (1996) posited that many studies have in fact shown that there is a relationship between family background characteristics and students‘ achievement. Beane and Lipka (2003) posited that some of the young peoples‘ difficulties at school can be due to problems caused by parents. They argue that home is the backbone for children‘s personality development and influences children directly through the kind of relationship the family members have among themselves as well as through helping them to get in contact with society.