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EFFECT OF GENDER AND FAMILIES SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

In Nigeria as in many other developing countries, education has been considered to be the cornerstone of economic growth and development. The Nigerian government believes that to survive in the competitive world economy, quality of education is the key variable. In this belief, educational reforms have been put in place directed towards improving the quality of education. These reforms in Nigeria are demanding greater students’ academic achievement and commitment from teachers. This is because of the belief that Parental socio- Economic Status of the students and due to gender might be responsible for the academic achievement of student’s in secondary schools.

The poor performances of students’ in secondary schools pose a persistent challenge to educators and researchers who have tried to identify the factors that might be responsible for these poor results. Many reasons have been given such as; lack of qualified and dedicated teachers, lack of in structural materials, some attributed it to teacher’s methodology, lack of ability of students to manipulate the English language. Yet not enough attention has been paid to the Socio- Economic Status and Gender as predictors of Students’ academic achievement in Economics

Economics is concerned with human behavior such as how people earn their income and make choices between alternatives to satisfy their wants. Since Economics is concerned with human behavior, it is a social science, and like in any science subject, the procedure adopted in Economics is analytical and systematic, the validity of its various theories can be tested. Economics is one of the elective subjects studied at the Senior Secondary School (SSS) level as stipulated in the National Policy on Education, (2004). Yusuf (2005), identified the relevant topics essential for the achievement of the set objectives, the structuring of the content was also based on the spiral spread thus making it possible for a concept to be learnt in its basic form in year (1) to its complex nature in year (3). An innovation in the programme is the introduction of elementary Mathematics and statistical tools of analysis for this level.

Obemeata (2000) explained the importance of Economics education to any nation. According to him Economics enables both leaders and