CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

Education is one of the most enduring legacies which a nation can bequeath to

her succeeding generations. This is because education serves as an illumination through

which people see the path to solving their problems. Education generally is accepted as

a vital asset for social mobility, economic mobility, and a societal transformation factor,

for both personal and national levels. Mahuta (2007) views formal education as the type

of education that is taught in schools which is planned and organized with aims and

goals that are intended to be achieved. According to Swift (1996), as cited in Mahuta

(2007), education is the way the individual acquires the physical, moral and social

capacities demanded of him by the group into which he is born and within which he

must function. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), as cited in Mahuta (2007), sees education

as, the influence exercised by adult generations on the younger ones that are not yet

ready for social life. It can therefore be said that education arouses and develops in an

individual certain number of physical, intellectual and moral skills which are demanded

of him by both the political society as a whole and his social environment in which he

or she lives.

Emile Durkheim as quoted in Haralambos & Heald (1980) maintains that;

Society can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the child from the beginning the essential similarities which collective life demands. Durkheim argues that to become attached to the society, the child must feel in it something that is real, alive and powerful, which dominates the person and to which he also owes the best part of himself. (p 173)

Education  is  a  sound  investment  that  is  expected  to  enhance  the  economic

growth of individuals which implies that education is a strong factor of social mobility.

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This means that education has the ability to influence a person’s future socio-economic status in the society. That is to say, a person who has attained higher level of education is likely to have higher chances of getting a good job which in return determines an individual’s social class in a society. Socio-economic status is a sociological and economical combined total measure of an individual or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education and occupation. Socio-economic status is typically broken into three categories; high socio-economic status, middle class socio-economic status, and low socio-economic status to describe the three classes a family or an individual may fall into. When placing a family or individual into one of these categories any or all of the three variables (income, education, and occupation) can be assessed. This class division has implications to the type of school a child attends, the type of education a child receives and the limit of educational attainment of a child. It is therefore very clear that children of higher socio-economic class are better opportune when it comes to attending better schools, colleges and universities. Families with high socio-economic status often have more success in preparing their young children for school because they typically have access to a wide range of resources to promote and support their children’s development. They are able to provide their young children with high quality child care, books and materials to encourage children in various learning activities at home.

Reverse is the case for children from low socio-economic class as socio-economic factor pose a big threat to their educational attainment. Parents are left with no option than to send their children to public schools most of which are today in bad and uncondusive teaching and learning conditions. The children of the poor and illiterate parents or low socio-economic status may not be able to get the opportunity of attending better schools or even proceeding to colleges and tertiary institutions. They

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are more likely to encounter problems of inequality in educational opportunities more especially in relation to enrollment, retention and completion. This situation widens the gap between the rich elites and the poor thereby further more fueling social stratification and encouraging educational life chance inequality in our society.

Through social stratification and educational inequality, education despite its importance and human cravings for it appears to be nothing but a mirage. Acquiring education has now become a state of concern for the less privileged families regardless of active measures taken by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Universal Basic Education Programmes (UBE) which is yet to be fully felt. Low socio-economic background child may stand the chance of dropping out of school due to financial problems reinforced with social stratification and inequality, thereby making educational equality a dream to “have not” of our society. According to Mahuta (2007), family background influences the educational life chances of an individual but the influences or impact of formal education is greater. Thus, education is an important means of social mobility. Mahuta (2007) further maintains that the socio-economic status of the family is a significant variable or factor that affects the educational life chances of a child. This therefore means that, the higher the socio-economic status of a child’s home, the higher his or her educational life chances.

With the poor socio-economic state of our country today, with its dwindling system of education which U.B.E itself could not resurrect, the low socio-economic populace which constitutes the majority of Nigeria’s population are stifled in their endeavor to offer their children good education and better life chances. Based on this background, this study investigates how socio-economic status of a child’s background affects his or her educational life chances in Basawa and Bomo district of Sabon-Gari local government, Zaria of Kaduna State.

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1.2         Statement of the Problem

In Nigeria today, educational attainment and achievement is seen as the most influential factor of social mobility. Social mobility offers a chance of socio-economic status upgrade and that chance is what socio-economically challenged parents are willing to secure for their children so that the children will have better chances in life than their parents. However, family socio-economic background, school accessibility and biological factors stand between these children and better educational life chances. But yet, among all these factors, socio-economic factor is the major factor that affects educational life chances. Education is apparently known for its ability to turn tides of socio-economic status of low socio-economic statuses to high or middle class status. Education plays a major role in enabling individuals to gain the required skill sets for acquiring jobs, as well as specific qualities that stratify people with high socio-economic status from low socio-economic status such as occupation.

The study areas which are Basawa and Bomo are a semi-urban area occupied by peasant farmers whose majority belonged to the low socio-economic stratum. These people are mostly working on their small pieces of farmland which is mainly for subsistence, and engaging in other laborious works for money to cater for their family’s needs. The poor socio-economic state they live in does not leave their children out of their daily struggle for survival as the children also have their part to play in the survival of the families by giving their parents helping hands either by helping the father with farm work or helping the mother through hawking. The meager amount earned in the families is barely enough for daily welfare upkeep such as feeding, clothing, shelter, and health care which is primary in nature. Children from such families hardly get enrolled in school solely because educational expenses cannot be afforded by their parents. Even when they manage to get enrolled, the children often lack necessary educational support

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in form of educational materials and school uniform. Apart from the enrollment problem faced by the children of these districts, their educational life chances are greatly threatened by parent’s educational level. Primary school education may be endured but continuing with secondary school education is another story entirely as these children, aware of their parents’ socio-economic status chose to work in farms for money, hawk, engage in motorcycle transportation business and petty trading over secondary school education. The little money they do earn gradually strays them from pursuing education and diminishes from their mind the possibility of the good education can offer, how education can move them up the social ladder and better life chances.

Furthermore, the educational level of parents in these districts is very low and as a result influences their children’s attitude towards education. Some parents are unable to go through their children’s work or even help them in areas or subjects of difficulties and this detaches the parents from the progress made by their children in school. Many of these parents do not like the schooling experiences (that is if they had any) and have negative attitudes toward education which also discourages their children and instilling in them negative attitude towards western education as well. These parents have lower aspiration which makes them to shun giving their children the great deal of support and encouragement needed to go to school, which as a result gradually, gets the children discouraged educationally and start drifting out of the classrooms and gradually, school due to lack of support, encouragement, motivation and inspiration from their parent. The children thereby in the process step in their parent’s shoe of ignorance and continue the legacy of negative attitude towards education.

Some school environments are also not all that welcoming to the children from low socio-economic background because they are subjected to classroom conflicts. Due to lack of well trained teachers, some primary and secondary schools are open to the

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problem of teacher expectation. Some of these inexperienced teachers tend to get children pre-judged according to their parent’s socio-economic status. In so doing, the social class identity given to a child by the teacher is usually on a good pupil and good parent basis which as a result influences a teacher’s perception of the child’s educational abilities and outcomes. Teachers do expect better performance from the children of high socio-economic status and low performance from the children of low socio-economic status. This classroom inequality and teacher expectations experienced by the low socio-economic status children makes them think that the classroom is not meant for them and therefore see no sense in schooling especially when their teachers expect them to perform poorly.

Gender is also not left behind among the problems by Basawa and Bomo district as most women in the mentioned areas are not educated beyond elementary school before being given out for marriage and those who manage to secondary school rarely get to finish before getting married. Apart from marriage, these girls are disadvantaged when it comes to deciding who is to go to school because the boys get chosen over girls by their parents. Most parents of low socio-economic status find it important to educate the boy child over the girl child. Girl child’s education is seen as a waste of efforts and resources as they will finally end up in matrimonial homes while boy child’s education is seen as an investment because he is believed to be able to yield meaningful returns to the family. Aside socio-economic status, cultural factors, religious factors among others are playing significant roles in determining the educational life chances of girls in Basawa and Bomo districts of Kaduna state.

Lareau (2003) speaks on the idea of concerted cultivation, where middle class and high class parents take an active role in their children’s education and development by using controlled organized activities and fostering a sense of entitlement through

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encouraged discussion while parents from lower class do not participate in this movement, causing their children to have a sense constraint educationally. Lareau (2003) further argued that children from poor background are common with weaker language skills compared to children raised in high social class. These language skills affect their abilities to learn and thus exacerbate the problem of educational disparity between low and high socio-economic status neighborhoods. Apart from the socio-economic constraints faced by these less privileged children, the few who manage to get enrolled in schools are faced with class inequality and in partiality from the teachers. And when teachers make judgments about students based on their class and socio-economic class, they are taking the first step in preventing students from having an equal opportunity for education and disparity in their future chances. The main thrust of this study is to find out the implications of socio-economic status and social class stratification on children’s educational life chances using the peasant farmers in Basawa and Bomo districts, Sabon-Gari local government, Zaria of Kaduna State as a study area.

1.3         Research Questions

The research questions for this study are as follows:

i.                    Is there any relationship between parent’s socio-economic status and children’s school enrollment?

ii.                 Is there any relationship between parents’ socio-economic status and to children’s educational life chances?

iii.               Is there any relationship between parents’ educational level and children’s educational achievement?

iv.                Is there any relationship between children’s socio-economic background and Teachers’ expectation in class?

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v.                  Is there any relationship between gender and children’s educational life chances?

1.4          Aims and Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are as follows:

i.                    To find whether there is any relationship between parents’ socio-economic status and children’s school enrollment.

ii.                 To find out whether there is any relationship between parents’ socio-economic status and children’s educational life chances.

iii.               To find out whether there is any relationship between parents’ educational level and children’s educational achievement.

iv.                To find out whether there is any of relationship between children’s socio-economic background and Teachers’ expectation in class.

v.                  To find out whether there is any relationship between gender and children’s educational life chances.

1.5         Hypotheses

This study has the following null hypothesis:

i.                    There is no significant relationship between parents’ socio-economic status and children’s school enrollment

ii.                 There is no significant relationship between parents’ socio-economic status and children’s educational life chances

iii.               There is no significant relationship between parents’ educational level and children’s educational achievement

iv.                There is no significant relationship between children’s socio-economic background and teachers’ expectation in class

v.                  There is no significant relationship between gender and children’s educational life chances

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1.6         Significance of the Study