The effects of socio-economic family backgrounds of class seven urban on their school performance: case Dar es Salaam

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of socio-economic family backgrounds of class seven urban pupils on their school performance. The study was based on four hypotheses. It was expected that pupils’ school performance would vary significantly on the basis of: (i) educational levels of their parents or guardians. (ii) occupations of parents or guardians. (iii) life styles or living standards of their homes. (iv) family sizes. This was a case study of two primary schools (Oysterbay and Kisarawe Street Primary Schools) in the Dar es Salaam city. Dar es Salaam city was chosen for its heterogeneity in terms of education levels and occupation patterns it provides for comparative purposes. Data was collected from a population sample of fifty-six class seven pupils (twenty-eight from each school/and a sample of seven class seven, English and Mathematics teachers for standard seven in the schools. The data required was of two types firstly data on socio-economic family background of pupils in the sample and secondly data about pupils’ school performance. Data was collected through questionnaires and two achievement tests ( in English and Mathematics) constructed and administered by the researcher. Data analysis showed that pupils’ performance in both English and Mathematics was differentiated on the basis of education levels of parents or guardians. The differences were statistically significant at P.01. the variation was in favour of pupils with educationally advanced parents or guardians. Pupils/ parents/ guardians were highly educated tended /whose to score highly in both English and Mathematics than those who did not. The differences were statistically significant beyond the P.01 level. It was found that on the basis of occupations pupils’ performance demonstrated a significant difference in English scores at P. 01. There was no significant difference in mathematics scores at P. 01 but only at P. 05. The employment of the mother did not result into any significant difference in school performance. /No significant difference was noticed in relation to performance on the basis of life styles of parents, except at P. 05 where there was a statistically significant difference between the relatively rich and poor group. The size of the family did not result into any significant difference in English and Mathematics scores. The study also demonstrated that private tuition after school hours had a positive effect on pupils school performance. Pupils who received privaye tuition were likely to score more highly in both English and Mathematics than those who did not. The difference were statistically highly significant beyond the P. 01 both cases. This dissertation is divided into five chapters chapter one definition of the problem; Review of Literature is in chapter two while chapter three deals with research methodology. Discussion of findings and conclusions is dealt with in chapter four, and finally chapter five gives the summary and recommendations.