CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    Background to the Study        
    So many reasons have been advanced for the poor performance of pupils in schools prominent, among them is the role of the teachers and Parents seem to depend only on teachers with the belief to change or transform their children to academic experts overnight and anything that falls below this expectation makes the teachers conduct unacceptable.                
Few people care to think of other factors responsible for academic performance of pupils at school. Unfortunately this factors are so weighty that it renders the efforts made by the teacher towards the realization of pupils  academic useless. It is widely accepted that child academic performance does not only restrict to the school he or she attends but also the educational preparation that a particular child had received outside the school. It could be from the family, the community and from the peer group.                                        According to Grosk (2004) the background of any child should be properly laid down, else such a particular child will face a lot     of difficulty in future .Some pupils who are very brilliant were negatively affected by the attitude of their parents by not providing them the necessary materials needed in the school and at home.    Apparently, it is now noticed that pupils whose parents encouraged and provide their educational needs always perform excellently. It was discovered that many parents do not realize the importance of keeping their children at school beyond some certain level they preferred to have their children working with them in their trade, and those that are interested in keeping their children at school never bothered to give a follow up by checking their children’s notebook and guide their home work .This medium makes the children performance to go below average in school.
1.2    Statement of the Problem
The importance of education in an individual cannot be over emphasized. Education has a long lasting impact on one’s life. The acquisition of knowledge and skills and all other things that is worthwhile which are transmitted to a person through formal and informal education determines his/her potential in future.
At the end of every instructional period in school comes examination. Over the years, the society has been recording a persistent increase in the rate of poor performance in various school examinations such as the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination [SSCE]. If this trend is not nip in the bud, it will have grave repercussion on the lives of these students, their parents and the society at large.
Comments from educators have shown that the blame from lack of good performance has been as a result of neglect and carefree attitude towards academic work by pupils and parents. Home is the first school for a child where he/she is taught the basic norms and values by the parents before the child leaves for the formal education. Contrary to the opinion that learning and reading begins in school, the first foundation of the child begins at home. A good and conducive home environment with adequate learning facilities would help to boost the intellectual and academic capability of the child. Well educated parents would always have good attitudes towards education and provide learning materials such as television, instructional video tapes, novels, books and journals that could facilitate the learning process. The motivation of any intelligent child towards learning is being accelerated by the positive influence of his/her environment while others are negatively affected in terms of their non-stimulating home environment.
1.3 Research Questions
i.    What is the academic background of parents of primary school pupils in Saki-west?
ii.    What is the academic performance of primary school pupils in Saki-West?
iii.    Is there any significant relationship between academic background of parents and primary school pupils in Saki-west?
1.4    Research hypothesis
This study was guided by the following null hypothesis (H0) hypothesis.
i)     There is no significant relationship between Parents’     Academic     background and the pupils’ academic     performance in primary schools in Saki- West.
ii)     There is no significant relationship between parents’ academic background and pupils academic performance on the basis of gender
iii)     On the basis of school type