Ezewu (2003) and Stones (2004) agree that certain physical conditions that exist at children’s

homes such as poor housing and overcrowdness usually are associated with poor academic
achievement. This means that pupils from high socioeconomic status have good homes that are
motivating and educative for example homes with televisions and videoplayers. Poor clothing ,
malnutrition , lack of adequate sleep and rest all have negative effects on how children from low
socioeconomic status learn. The availability of tables ,chairs r,light and resource persons help the
child to learn better unlike the family of low socio-economic status which struggles to make ends
meet and hardly have facilities which enhance the learning of children at home.
Effects of literate and illiterate families on academic achievement of their children
Catts(2009) asserts that children from literate families have high chances of performing better at
school because their parents value education and education and can draw up reading time tables
for their children or even arrange for part time teachers to teach their children during spare time
and check their children’s work regularly to promote motivation and curiosity for better results at
the end of the day. They can afford to send their children to trips because they have financial
resources and a better understanding of the trip. David(2007) stresses the importance of
textbooks and studies after normal classroom teaching. These findings are a clear indication of
the relationship between the level of literacy of the parent and the academic performance of the
child in that , children from literate families can stand a chance to have adequate reading
materials to enhance their learning but those from illiterate families lack parental assistance as a
result of their illiteracy and ignorance. Illiterate parents can also be failing to motivate , reinforce
and reward. And as such they will be scaling down their children’s performance which might
force them to be serious with their school work attaching the consequences of good and bad
performance with the reactions of their parents.
Leedy(1980)has confirmed that the rate of illiteracy of families results in lack of encouragement
of children as far as schooling is concerned. In the same manner, Mario(2006) asserts that
domestic work has an effect on the performance of children especially those born to poor parents
who go about wildly searching for food and other relevant items before going to school. The
main issue put forward by the two authors clearly indicates that illiterate faamilies refuse to
provide their children with relevant teaching-learning materials , they will be denying them
effective learning. The outstanding issue is that , the children from these illiterate families have
hardly enough time for school , they will be already tired and may end up sleeping lessons ,
thereby resulting in lack of paying attention and concentration and may end up failing simple
school orders and finally failing to do given assignments.

2.4 the relationship between home environment and academic achievement of children
Edwards and gillies 2005 carried out some studies on children’s attitudes towards education
andconcluded that children are affected by home background ,parental socioeconomic status
,level of educational attainment of parents ,marital relationship at home ,school climate ,sex and
peer group influence and the type of family
 .farrant 2004 confirms that children who grow up in homes where the mind is stimulated
,develop mentally more than those from homes where there is no incentive for mental growth
and also adds that all behavior is a response to some stimulus in the environment.the central
issue put forward by both scholars shows that the environment in which a child grows has an
impact on his or her performance at school hence the researcher has a knowledge gap and is
carrying out this research in order to find out the influence of family background on academic
achievement of pupils in primary schools in Zimbabwe with special emphasis on grade fours of
gwavi cluster in gokwe south province .
Benard 19991 evaluated the impact of father’s style of dealing with their children at home and
their academic achievements aat school.the results of this study revealed that father’s
involvement has a significant relationship with the academic achievement of their children
.zhang and carrasquillo 1995 have similar remarks that