Abstract:

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of parents’ socio-economic status on the academic achievement in biology of public senior secondary school students in Orlu LGA Imo state. Descriptive research design survey was used. The population of the study comprises of senior secondary school students of the selected school. The sample consisted of 200 students from 10 secondary schools randomly selected for the study. The instruments used for the study is a self-designed questionnaire and inventory to collect students’ results. Validity of the instrument was ascertained through face and content validity. Reliability co-efficient of 0.70 was obtained. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The data were analyzed using chi-square statistical tools. Conclusions drawn from the analyses indicate that parents’ socio-economic status influenced the academic achievement in biology of public senior secondary school students in Orlu LGA Imo state. It is therefore recommended that parents without proper educational background should endeavour to send their children to extra lessons after school hours/days, by weekends and during holidays to improve their academic performance. Also, parents with high socio-economic status should assist schools in area of educational developments, setting up of laboratories and libraries in schools. More so, government should embark on programmes or formulate policies that can bridge the gaps between children of the rich and the poor in their academic pursuit. Churches, government and non-government organizations should introduce scholarship scheme to assist less privilege students; basic and social amenities should also be provided in all public schools by the government to ensure that standards are maintained.