.

Background to the Study

Academic accomplishment is an essential parameter in measuring success in students. Observations and

reports have shown that success or high academic accomplishment has become a Herculean task to
accomplish by Pupils in recent times. Poor academic performance was recorded at the primary, Primary
school and tertiary levels of education in Nigeria.

The performance of Pupils at all levels in educational institutions in Nigeria has attracted many criticisms
from all and sundry and from time immemorial. The decline in academic performance of Pupils in
Nigeria has been observed by Soyinka (2009) when he observed that the education system in Nigeria
need restructuring. He went further to say that academic standard had fallen drastically and the quality
of graduates being produced by the nations’ schools is questionable and subject to re-examination.

Poor academic performance of Pupils has been of great concern to educationists, guidance and
counsellor in particular. Despite all guidance programmes and counseling strategies mounted in schools
to improve the students’ academic performance were recorded yearly. It becomes necessary to find out
the causes of such poor performance in Nigeria primary institutions. Though these poor performances
have been attributed to a lot of industries such as pupils’ factors, like pupil’s attitude to school,
approach to learning and academic self-concept. Apart from pupils’ factors, school factors and parent’s
factors, there are other indicators that cause poor performance. On the part of the parents, there are
certain factors which influence children’s success, such as parents’ social class, parents’ education as
well as parental input and other factors, the family size and birth order can contribute positively or
negatively to students’ academic performance.

Family size in this context refers to the total number of children in the child’s family in addition to
the child him/herself, while the birth order refers to the child’s position in the birth order. However, the
family type that a child comes from either monogamous or polygamous family usually has an impact on
the child’s academic performance. It is important to note that either of the family type (monogamous or
polygamous) family dictates the size of the family. The polygamous family is peculiar to Africa in general
and Nigeria in particular in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State; the data collected
revealed that polygamous family is common among well-educated family as well as among poorly
educated families. It is equally among professional and managerial fathers of the top of the occupational
hierarchy. It is the unskilled workers at the bottom of ladders that the practice of polygamy is
prominent, but it is equally common among intellectually oriented families living in homes full of recent
books as well as families without a single book in their houses.

Information from literature depicted that children from larger families are found to do worse
than children from smaller families lower down the birth order do worse than those higher up the birth
order (Lacovou, 2001). According to Adler cited in Uba (2011) first birth or the older child is usually
advantaged by a good deal of attention and warmth during the early stage on the age of life, which he
entertains all alone. Observations and studies have shown that more attention and time are usually
accorded the firstborn (Becker, 2000). Parental attention by parents declines as the number of children
increase and later-born children perform less well than their earlier born siblings. Studies carried out in
the past on the relationship achievement and birth order have shown that there were negative
relationships. For example, Leoma (2002) on the relationship of birth order and creativity, first born and
configuration of oldest and only children are the significantly more creative or verbal test of creativity
than later born.

Nwafor and Ango (2008) observed that there was more significant outstanding academic
performance amongst first birth children. Tenibiaye (2002) observed that there was a significant
difference in intellectual capacity between the first and later born Spear in his study, investigated that
birth order effect on intelligence with later-born children revealed that later-born children were less
capable than earlier siblings when birth order controlled, family size was found to be negatively related
to intelligence.

However, Powell and Steelman (2003) and Vanejik and Degraaf (2005) argued that children’s
attainment depends on the input of time and money from their parents. The more increase of children
in a family the less of both inputs. These inputs are not money alone, but other essential things like
time, attention, resource delusion and so on.

Moreso, Booth, and Kee (2006) confirmed that children from larger families have lower levels of
education. Research

Limitation of the Study

The limitation of the study includes the following:

i. The time given for the study was inadequate to make research like this which has a wide scope. Also
Apart from time, shortage of finance was the major limitation to research.

ii. Is the inability of research to cover the whole primary schools in Oruk Anam Local Government Area
as the title suggested?

1.8 Delimitation of the Study

This research work has not only focuses attention on Family Size and Academic Performance of Pupils in
English Language in Oruk Anam Local Government Area with selected public Primary School in the study
area.

1.9 Definition of Terms

Family size: Is the total number of children in the child’s family in addition to herself \ himself.

Birth order: This refers to the child’s position in the family.

Small size family: Is a family with not more than six (6) people i.e. the father, mother and four (4)
children.

Polygamy: The custom of having more than one wife at the same time.
Academic Performance: Refers to the mean score obtained by pupils in an examination. In this study, it
refers to evidence of knowledge acquisition, literacy and learning through pupil’s end of term/year
examination or cumulative grades.

Educational Attainment- The highest level of education an individual has completed from primary to
university levels. The study investigated the influence of educational attainment of pupils “parent’s on
pupils” academic performance in public schools

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