CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL   INTRODUCTION

Introduction

This chapter will be made up of background of the study, statement of the problem, General objectives, research question, hypotheses, significance of the Study, scope of the studies and operational definition of terms

Background of the Study

Cameroon was colonized by the Germans and the German language was  taught in schools making it quite difficult for children to adapt to the German language (Ngoh, 1996).This made it very difficult for children who studied in German schools to perform very well in their academics since language was somehow a barrier to them.

 Due to language constrain some children focused on rural activities such as hunting, farming, fishing, which was the background activities of their parents. These  activities made the native children who studies in German school not to focus on their education since they were busy with these activities.

 Due to independence and reunification, two (2) systems of education promoted bilingualism. with the introduction of bilingualism, children were taught the two  languages which were English and French.

  Nevertheless, there are some children  who produce extremely poor in school due to language barrier. Some might even prefer helping their parents in their jobs such as hunting, fishing and farming. These affect  the child’s performance in school due to lack of concentration in their academics. Nevertheless there are exception to these  as some parents  send their children to school, following  them up academically, providing their allowances and buying of their text book. All of these give an excellent result in school (chao, 1992).

Contextually, in present day like Muea for example, it is highly dominated by farmers, this might make the child to be absent at all time as they help their parent’s in their farms hindering them from studying. Also, most of their parents are illiterate and they don’t contribute in the success of their children by paying of their school fees, buying of textbooks, giving out allowance. Also, some parents are ignorant about the Importance of education of their children, they fail to help the child in their homework, to follow up their children performance in their school. Some of these children speak pidgin, absent from school  so as to help their parents sell In the market. This will help them to be lacking notes and be backward in every lesson learnt in class due to their absence. Some children even find it difficult to copy notes that they failed to copy due to absenteeism, this make the child to be prone to failure.

Also, parent teacher association(PTA) helps update the parent’s on how  their children are progressing in school. It helps both teachers and parents to collaborate and see the way forward to share ideas for the betterment of their children and help the teacher switch to various methods that can help the child perform well in school.

Theoretically, Jean Piaget(1936) developmental theory talks about the development of a child. when a child is born, breast feeding help to boost the immunity and mental capacity of children. This help them to be able to think cognitively and develop their brain as they grow up. parents who feed their children with breast milk help to boost their cognitive abilities and prevent them from getting sick. when the child grows up and start schooling, his brain is retentive and active and makes the child to recall and perform excellent in school, and very active and interactive in class. unlike other parents who feed their children with artificial or bottle milk. This makes their brain week and shallow as they grow up and start school they turn to forget easily in class, inactive and not smart like the children whom their parents grew them up with breast milk. This affect student performance in school as parents failed to give their children the right nutrient from birth.

Also, Vygosty cognitive(1978)cognitive development theory suggested the use of culture specific tools which help students to memorize and solve problems. This tools include text book, computers, social software media and many more. If these resources are provided by the school then students performance will be great.

  With the absence of these tools due to lack of finance  by parents, the child will perform poorly in school which affects students performance negatively. Also if parents fail to send their children to school where these facilities are available it result in the drop of students performance leading to poor results.

  Conceptually, various authors wrote on how parental influence affect student performance in secondary school Buea Municipality. This include

Firstly Norsuhail (2017) influence of parental education on academic performance of secondary school students. He analysis how parental education and parental educational qualification affect secondary school students. They used a stratified random technique to sample the option of 100 respondents from four selected secondary schools. The result revealed that students from parents of high educational background performance better as opposed to students who had a poor educational background.

Topor,et al:(1988) parent involvement and student academic performance: A multi mediational analysis elaborates on the connection between student’s performance and parents involvement in their school affaires. For instance parent-Teacher contact has a positive impact on student performance in fact  an enhanced student performance is directly proportional to increasing parental intervention in the academic affairs of students.

Statement of the problem

Parents plays a vital role in  the performance of their children. This is so because parents are the first teachers to their children. It is the wish for every parents to see their children succeed. They ensure that that their children school fees is paid, join PTA, send their children to good school, assist them in their academic.

However, the influence of parents on their children may also have negative effects on their academic performance. It is for this reason that the researcher seeks to find out the effect of parental influence on student’s academic performance in secondary school in Buea municipality.

General Objective

The general objective of the study is to find out the influence of parental occupation and belief on student’s academic performance in secondary schools Buea Municipality.

Special Objective

1. To find out the influence of parental occupation on student’s academic performance in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.
2. To find out the influence of parental belief on student academic performance in secondary school in Buea municipality.

General Research Questions

What is the effect of parental occupation and belief on students’ examination score and sequence tests in secondary schools in Buea Municipality?

Specific Research Questions

1. What is the effect of parental occupation on exams score of students in secondary schools in Buea municipality?
2. What is the effect of parental belief on students’ scores in sequential test in secondary schools in Buea municipality?

General Research Hypothesis

Ho: There is no significant relationship between parents’ occupation and belief and academic performance of  secondary school students’ in Buea municipality.

Ha: There is a significance relationship between parents occupation and belief and academic performance of  secondary school students’ in the Buea municipality.

Special Research Hypothesis

Ho1:There is no significant relationship between parents occupation and student’s academic performance in secondary schools Buea Municipality.

Ha1:There is a significant relationship between parents’ occupations and students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.

Ho2:There is no significant relationship between parents’ belief and student academic performance in secondary schools in Buea Municipality.

Ha2: There is a significant relationship between parent’s belief and students academic performance in secondary school Buea municipality.