Benue State University, Makurdi

INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS’ SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN BASIC SCIENCE AT UPPER BASIC SCHOOLS IN BENUE STATE

Alice Ogbene Enuma, Peter Ogbu Agogo and Comfort Ojela Odoh^*

Abstract

The study investigated the Influence of students’ socioeconomic background on academic performance in basic science at upper basic schools in Benue State. The study was guided by one research question and one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level. The study adopted the causal-comparative or ex-post-facto research design. The population for this study was made up of 29, 558 Upper Basic III students in public secondary schools in Benue State. A sample of 336 Upper Basic III students from 12 Upper Basic schools in Benue State was selected using random sampling technique. Basic Science Performance Test (BSPT) was used for data collection. Research question was answered using mean and standard deviation .The hypothesis were tested using t-test. It was found that there is no significant difference in the mean academic performance in Basic Science of students with low, middle and high socioeconomic background and that there is no significant difference between the mean academic performance in Basic Science of male and female students with low, middle and high socioeconomic background. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that socioeconomic background has no significant influence on students’ academic performance in Basic Science in Benue State. Also socio-economic background has no significant influence on academic performance of male and female students. The researchers recommended that teachers and parents should offer equal opportunities to both male and female students in Basic Science and science in general since their socioeconomic background and gender have no significant influence on their academic performance in Basic Science.

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