The reason why socio economic status of parents affects the education of their children

The socio economic status of parent is very important for proper education of their children. There are so many things that an improved or a good socio economic status of parent can do for their children in terms of education. It has been ascertained that there is a correlation between instructional materials and students performance in terminal examination, seminars, undergraduate projects, dissertation etc. All these materials might not be available for students whose parent have a very poor socio economic status because the student might not have the fund to acquire them. Not only that; poor socio economic status of parent can also influence their decision to send their children to school.

Socio Economic Status

Socioeconomic status (SES) encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security, and subjective perceptions of social status and social class. Socioeconomic status can encompass quality of life attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to people within society. Poverty, specifically, is not a single factor but rather is characterized by multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. Further, SES is a consistent and reliable predictor of a vast array of outcomes across the life span, including physical and psychological health. Thus, SES is relevant to all realms of behavioral and social science, including research, practice, education, and advocacy.

Determinants Of Socio Economic Status

The following are the major determinants of a household Socio-Economic status.

Gender: Gender refers to the commonly shared expectations and norms within a society about appropriate male and female behavior, characteristics and roles. Gender can be considered a social and cultural construct that differentiates females from males and thus defines the ways in which females and males interact with each other. A gendered ability differential has correlation with economic status of the household.

Age: Age is defined empirically with respect to a specific event call it the study event and with age distinguishing people by how long they have survived. Age of the respondent is anticipating a positive relation on earning ability and age-squared has a negative association with earning ability.

Sex Ratio: Sex ratio represents the number of females compared to the number of males. In other words, it is expressed as „number of females per 1000 males‟. The society which places high negative values has very low sex ratios and vice versa.

Family Size: The number of members normally residing in a household is its size. The size of the family is a matter of great importance not only for the country as a whole but also for the welfare and health of the individual, the family and the community. The development regarding social, educational and economic conditions leads to positive attitudes in favor of limiting of the family size.

Education: Education is often looked to as an opportunity for children to overcome the disadvantage of social background by placing themselves on an equal footing with others upon entering the labor market. It is well known that the Socio-Economic Status (SES) of children‟s families has a significant influence on their educational achievement. And, of course, educational achievement is a good predictor of Socio-Economic Status. Dependency Ratio: Demographic dependency ratio is used as approximate indicator of the relative size of the non-working age population vis-a vis the working-age population. The youth-dependency ratio (the number of children per 100 persons of labor force for ages 15–64 years) and the elderly-dependency ratio (the number aged 65 years or older per 100 persons of labour force age) indicate the dependency burden on workers and how the type of dependency shifts from children to older persons during the demographic transition. The falling or rising burdens of demographic dependency is a predictor of economic Status.

Working Status: Workers or employed households are household heads who are currently working for wages, salaries, tips, or commissions. Self-employed households or small business owners are working in a family business. Non-working households are the once who are not currently working. Work Participation Rate: The Work Participation Rate (WPR) is defined as the percentage of total workers to the total population. Work participation rate is helpful in determining employment policy and policy formulation for human resource development.

Assets: Household assets represent all that were owned by the household and had money value. This included physical assets like land, buildings, livestock, agricultural machinery and implements, non-farm business equipment, all transport equipment, and financial assets like due receivable on loans advanced in cash or in kind, shares in companies and cooperative societies, banks, etc.,. Drinking Water and Health care Facilities: Safe drinking water and primaryhealth care facilities are crucial prerequisites and will be helpful for social development. Adequate and safe drinking water and health care facilities are important services required for a healthy household and community development. These facilities are closely related to social, economic and cultural development.

Early Child Education

Pre-primary education is the education given to younger learners before the age of entering primary education (6 years). Early childhood education or pre-primary education is defined as education given educational settings for children aged 3 through 5 years in preparing their entry into primary school. It includes “ota akara’’ popularly named in some parts of the country, the crèche, the nursery and the kindergarten. These types of education settings are currently provided by private entrepreneurs. The first pre-primary education was founded in 1816 by Robert Owen. The early experts in childhood education were anxious to see the children of the rich and the poor have the opportunity and privilege to be educated. With the phasing out of infant classes, some parents began to feel the need for nursery schools; the demand for nursery education was however very low in Nigeria until recently.

Socio Economic Status Of Parents And Child Education

Research indicates that children from low-SES households and communities develop academic skills slower than children from higher SES groups. For instance, low SES in childhood is related to poor cognitive development, language, memory, socioemotional processing, and consequently poor income and health in adulthood. The school systems in low-SES communities are often underresourced, negatively affecting students’ academic progress and outcomes