Parents' education, occupation and real mother's age as predictors of students' achievement in mathematics in some selected secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Mathematics is a fundamental subject which functions as a basic index for understanding and mastery of various aspects of science as well as the complexity of modern technology. Thus, every individual needs some knowledge of Mathematics in order to live a useful life and be an effective member of the society. Several studies in the past have focused on the factors associated with students' poor academic achievement in Mathematics. However, very few of those have considered the influence of multiple indicators on students' achievement in Mathematics at the secondary school level with a view to establishing their combined influence on students' academic achievement. This study, therefore investigated the causal-effects of parents' education, occupation and real mother's age as predictor of students' achievements in Mathematics among secondary school students in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study employed ex-post facto type of research. The sample was selected using the multi-stage sampling technique. Two thousand four hundred students from 60 selected schools in nine local government areas within Ogun State, Nigeria were involved. Two research instruments namely; Students' Questionnaire; (r = 0.87) and Mathematics Achievement Test; (r = 0.84) were used. One research hypothesis was tested and data were analysed using multiple regression at.05 level of significance. The result reveals that parents' education has the highest significant influence on the academic achievement of students in Mathematics while the effect of real mother's age had the least effect among the variables which exerted significant effects on students' academic achievement in Mathematics.