Influence of socio-economic status of parents’ income and motivation on the academic achievement of chemistry students

This study investigated the extent socio-economic status of income and motivation influence academic achievement of Chemistry students in Abakaliki Education zone, Ebonyi State. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study and two hypotheses were tested in the study. Two structured questionnaire and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) were major instruments used to collect the relevant data for the results of the study. The main questionnaire for the study had a reliability coefficient of 0.78 using the Cronbach Alpha Approach while the Chemistry Achievement Test had a reliability coefficient of 0.88 using Kuder-Richardson-20. A total of 306 senior secondary II students were used for the study as sample. Data collected were subjected to analysis using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the study showed that parents’ level of income and motivation do influence Chemistry students’ academic achievement. The two hypotheses tested were significant. The researcher therefore recommended among other things that parents should work hard to get sufficient funds to cater for their children’s needs both in the home and at school. Again, there should be optimum motivation in different kinds to encourage the children to have interest in their schooling so that they can develop positive attitude towards their studies. The schools should ensure the provision of both qualified teachers and material resources to motivate the students also. When these recommendations are implemented, the academic achievement of chemistry students would increase tremendously.