Running Head: EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 1

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to address the issue of poverty in academic performance. The research
developed research questions that led the formulation of the objectives that needs to be addressed
by the paper. The relevant studies related to the title of the paper have been conducted and the
gap found should be filled by this research. Intensive data collection shall be conducted to collect
relevant data which is as accurate as possible. Interviewing and questionnaire methods will be
used to collect data from students, parents and all the other relevant stakeholders. Data collected
is analyzed and the interpretations used to answer the research questions developed in chapter
one. A recap of the whole research proposal at the last part of the paper provided is provided in
conclusion.
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 2

Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................2
1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Research objectives...........................................................................................................................7

1.2 Research questions............................................................................................................................7

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................................8

2.1 Family background of the learners.....................................................................................................8

2.2 Level of education of the learners parents.......................................................................................10

2.3 Influence of financial stability of the learners parents.....................................................................12

2.4 Summary of the literature review.....................................................................................................14

3.0 METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................................................14
3.1 Designing the survey.......................................................................................................................16

3.2 The basis for research interviews.....................................................................................................17

4.0 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................18
5.0 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................20
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................22
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 3

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Academic performance refers to extend to which a student or any other individual as well as
institution achieve within a short period of time (Zimbardo & Boyd, 2015). It also refers to any
form of achievement the individual stated above attain in a long period of time. The
achievements that are evaluated in this case are in line with the educational goals. For instance,
cumulative GPA, obtaining of educational certificate such as degree amongst others forms part
and parcel of academic achievements. It is important to note that each and every individual
stands a chance to have good papers (Wang & Degol, 2013). However, not all the individuals
manage to have good academic performances. This is attributed by various factors that are either
internal or external. Internal f actors involve the possessed intellectual property of each and
every individual (Aizer & Currie, 2014). This is brought about by genetic composition of an
individual. Intellectual property contributes to variation in ability to internalize the concepts and
retention of the information the child is taught in a class.

On the other hand, external factors are the facets that usually influence the ability of an
individual to perform well in the field of academic. The factors affect the ability of the child
directly or indirectly depending on various aspects (Zimbardo & Boyd, 2015). Some of the
factors include environment that the student is exposed to, the people the child is interacting with
as well as the status of the family the child is coming from. For instance, a student coming from
a good and well of family will perform better than another student coming from a poor
background (Wang & Degol, 2013). Similarly, a child who interacts with learned fellow has high
chances to perform better than individuals who interact with school dropouts (Spaull, 2013).
Poverty also contributes to the poor performance of the student in learning institution. In this
paper, major emphasis will be on the effect of poverty on academic performance.

Over the decades, it has been found that the educational outcomes have greatly been
under the influence of poverty (Aizer & Currie, 2014). Besides the peer effluent in academic
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 4

performance of children, poverty has greatly impacted on the performance of the performance of
the children simply because of their mind status. The mind setting of the children is measured in
terms of emotions as well as stress the child is subjected to (Wang & Degol, 2013). As far as this
is concerned, it is clear that the mind of the learners coming from a poor background is full of
emotions as well as stress that are contributed by various factors (Spaull, 2013). It is important to
recall that the children from these families take poor diets that attributes to lowering of their IQ.
Generally, the growth of brain cells is depended on the amount of protein in the diets that the
individual take (Zimbardo & Boyd, 2015). In most cases, they take diets with less of proteins
that in turn lead to slow growth rate of the brain cells. On top of all this, some time, they are
made to skip a certain meal which in turn acts a major cause of stress to such learners.

Emotional stress consequently has been found to have a direct attribute to the low
concentration in class work thus making the learners start performing poorly. Apart from the
emotional trauma, there are other attributes of poverty to factor that also have direct impact on
academic performance (Aizer & Currie, 2014). According to the research, it has been noted that
poverty has direct connection with the cognitive lags, social challenges while in learning
institutions as well as healthy and safety issues.

In United state, a study was done to investigate and identify the gap that existed in
between the poor and advantaged individuals in line with the academic performance (Spaull,
2013). Several researches were done and in the year 2001, the education department of united
state clearly depicted the impact of the schools as well as poverty had great impact on the
performance of the learners (Aizer & Currie, 2014). The study was done on the seventy one
schools that were termed as the poorest school within the region. It was noticed that the students
from this schools had been performing poorly for a several years (Wang & Degol, 2013).
However, the fact that the research was done on the student on level three and five, the
information was generalized to all the levels. Further evaluation was done and it was noticed that
the student in these schools were not coming from the same poverty level families. The
individuals who came from the poorest background were noticed to be having the poorest
performance as opposed to those from the better background (Kiss et al, 2014). A need for more
research arose and in the year 2010, more research was done and depicted the similar results as
those collected in the year 2001 (Spaull, 2013). This brought about an interest of the educational
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 5

department to investigate the reason behind the poor performance of the students in these
schools. In the same year, the president Barrack Obama came in to improve the status of the
school so as to see whether the performance can be improved. His contribution was aimed at
eradicating poverty in these schools.

The achievements of the low low-incoming students were summarized in a table where
percentile of the family level was provided. Generally, the poor student background was noted to
be at the rank position labeled 19 th percentile (Wang & Degol, 2013). As far as middle-upper
income were ranked in the 66th percentile. With an effort to eradicate poverty, it was noticed that
the percentage of poor performances decreased with a very big margin. This brought about an
interest to investigate the reason behind the relationship between the poverty and poor
performances of the learners.

Apart from United state, there are other researches that have been done in other area
within different continents. Chicago had its own point of view concerning the effect of low
socioeconomic status in education (Kiss et al, 2014). According to the Chicago policy review, it
was clear that the socioeconomic status persist in individual from the early childhood to
adulthood (Zimbardo & Boyd, 2015). This in turn will contribute to the continuous state of
poverty amongst the people. In addition, it asserted that there exist a relationship between
poverty and performance in academic field. To accertain that, the Chicago experts argued that
there exist endless affect that injects in the minds of the teenagers from the age of one year to age
of nine years for every individual from the poor family. In addition, they asserted that the
poverty contributes to both physical and mental disorders. Consequently, they end up having
externalizing disorders caused by the emotional regulatory system disruptions. It is of great
importance noting that, systems that regard emotional regulation for such scenarios from the
learners who come from poor backgrounds are normal and expected to negatively impact on the
academic performance of the learners. All the above was found to have caused anxiety and
depressions in the students from poor families. Similarly, it contributes to the helpless of the
learners in the academic field (Spaull, 2013). At the same time, the student end up not having
confidence in what they are doing. Their social behavior also is limited to the individuals of their
own class.
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 6

Due to lack of social skills, the students end up feeling shy and losing confidence in
them. This makes them not ask questions regarding the area or topics that they have not
understood well. Lack of proper understanding yields negative results in the academic field in
general. It is also important to note that the students spend most of their time outside the schools
for fees. In their absence, they end up losing some of the lesson taught in class. Owing to the fact
that they have phobia, the do not follow up what was taught in their absence. Bearing in mind
that the exam covers all the syllabus content, they end up performing poorly due to lack of some
important details concerning a particular topic (Kiss et al, 2014). This acts as another contributor
of poor performance of learners who come from the poor background. However, several
researches have been done concerning this effect of the poverty on the education specifically
performance of the learners in class but no defined explanation given. Therefore the research will
be done explain and describe more details concerning the performance of learners in learning
institution in relation to their associated background. The research objectives and research
question which acts as a guideline for the research are provided in this paper.

1.1 Research objectives

Previous study has not given adequate details concerning the effect of the poverty in academic
performances. Basically, there is no clear definition of contribution of poverty to academic
performance. However, there is a need for the research to be done so as to come up with a clear
definition between the effects that poverty brings to the academic performance. The research
aims at clarify how poverty affects has acted as a main attribute to the IQ level of any particular
individual. To do so, the following research objectives need to be highly considered.

i. To identify family background of learners and try to relate the background to the
performance of the child.
ii. To determine the level of education of the learners’ parents.
iii. To investigate the influences of financial stability of the learners’ parents.

1.2 Research questions

To be able to collect the data that is required from the field, there is need for the research to
formulate certain questions. In research, the research questions act as a guideline for the
operation of collecting data. In this research, the research questions are as follows
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 7

i. What are the backgrounds of the most learners? How has the background influenced
academic performance of the learners?
ii. What are the levels of education of learners’ parents?
iii. How has financial instability affected learners’ parents?

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Family background of the learners

If the poor were to be provided with a way to overcome the situation at hand then, may
be such effects impacted to the education and to the learners would not be evident influencing on
academic performance of the learners in this case (Claro et al, 2016). It is pretty clear that in a
poor background, the academic performance in this particular situation will be very low as
compared to the backgrounds that are not poor or rather are doing better than the latter. As a
matter of fact, poverty tends to place the effect to the families or communities in a very
dangerous disadvantage that does not only touch on the environmental concerns, but also in the
psychological, emotional and physical aspects. Therefore, this is a clear indication that a child or
person from poor background will have a lot of issues to deal with hence putting them in a
position not to perform or grasp whatever thing that is taught to them academically easily
(SULEIMAN, 2016).

Such a factor as the family background, influence on the performance of learners is a true
scenario considering that poverty goes to an extra mile influencing how the same students who
have been affected by the same will be able to respond to things or environmental aspects such
as stimuli. A family background that is poor will influence how the individuals coming from
such backgrounds are going to perceive things and at the same time, how first they are going to
grasp them (SULEIMAN, 2016). It through consideration to the impacts created and impacted to
them as a result of the poverty, that it will be difficult to most of them failing to perform as far as
the academics are considered in this case. These effects continue to affect generations just
because of the impacts created on the education as a result of poverty contributes largely to
perpetuation of the normal cycle (Claro et al, 2016). This normal cycle affects the individuals,
communities and as well the countries since the poverty as a result of the families that have a
poor background have very long term effects that tend to impact negatively on the academic
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 8

performances. In fact, the parties that are involved with the policy making that regard to the
academic performance in the alleviation of poverty from the families that have poor backgrounds
should be checked early to avoid future problems. This is considering both the lives that they live
and their performance in academics.

Countries such as the third world and those that are developing are the ones that are
mostly challenged with such problems (Scherer, 2016). Moreover, it is evident that income
distribution or rather the distribution of wealth between those that are poor and the ones that are
rich, is very large. This goes hand in hand to negatively impacting on the performance of
academics from the poor backgrounds. This is as a result of limited opportunities that are
available at the disposal of such poor backgrounds that are in consideration for this particular
case (Scherer, 2016). In fact, it is clear that those students that are from the backgrounds that are
doing better as compared to those from the poor backgrounds, in most of the cases perform better
than them. However, such a disparity, when handled in trying to improve the academic
performance through poverty management, will be of great importance and a major step in the
eradication of the same and academic performance improvement (Claro et al, 2016).

Those children who are brought up in poor family backgrounds are in fact more exposed
to several external disorders that go ahead to negatively influence on their performances
(SULEIMAN, 2016). These set ups tend to create disruption to the learners in terms of their
emotion regulation and finally early age stresses that continue to make them not to be in a
position to understand things with ease as far as the learning and performance are concerned in
this particular case. There is also the learned helplessness that is in this case created as a result of
children being brought up in set ups of poor family backgrounds (Walling & Martinek, 2015).
This has got the tendency of making the young learners from such backgrounds not to feel like
they can grasp any academics thereby making it impossible for them to perform for already they
have got a notion that they can perform in academics (SULEIMAN, 2016). When this extends in
the community and last for lengthy periods of time without any intervention for help, then the
entire generation will be affected for it will be a belief or rather a culture that from poor
backgrounds, they cannot be in a position to perform well in academics (Scherer, 2016).
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 9

However, it is may be true to that, for most of the poor backgrounds have been associated
with several problems such as housing, violence, gender inequality and a lot of family turmoil
that regardless of anything else do negatively impact on their ability to perform in academics
(SULEIMAN, 2016). According to Claro et al, helplessness seen in learners from the
backgrounds that are poor, is facilitated by the excess exposure in such areas that are always
exposed to problems. In this case, it is most definite that such experiences are not going to be in
a position to favor those that are from backgrounds that are poor in terms of their academic
performances. As well, in reference to SULEIMAN, the psychological, environmental and also
the physical factors resulting due to the exposure to the backgrounds that are poor largely
influence how such students are going to pick up and perform academically. This is with
consideration to the fact that they are faced with a lot of challenges that are overwhelming
making their brains to totally adapt to some conditions that can be termed as sub optimal making
learning to be difficult experience.

2.2 Level of education of the learners parents

Although learning institutions promote equality of chance for performance for all
learners, with the application of several measures that try to reduce the effects disparity of
parental education background, there is perception that learner’s performance is greatly affected
by parental level of education. Generally parents with lower education mostly they earn low
incomes (Kao & Tienda, 2015).

Aggression among other behavioral problems is associated with poor family parents with
low level of education and low income. Aggressive parents will tend to punish their children or
frequent shout to them, this frequent punishing of learners either from school or home makes the
student develop a condition of discomfort which in turn will make the learner fail to concentrate
and understand as expected in class(Kao & Tienda,2015). This will result to repeat under
performance of the student which in turn will make the learner develop negative attitude towards
education thus the student will not easily achieve their academic goals.

Young people do learn by example, therefore when children see their parents attending
classes they will also like to be in school to learn and achieve as their parents, but on the other
hand for parents with low level education their children may meditate in education since they
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 10

still feel that they can survive without education as their parent and the children will tend to copy
their parents life. This will directly lead to poor performance of the learner since they will never
work had and neither expect from education life (Kao &Tienda,2015)

Parents with high education level of education and good income will have great
expectation and confidence in their children academic capability since they can afford to pay for
all requirements for better education provision (Englund et al, 2015). Parents with low level
education and low income, majority do not expect much from their children since they don’t also
provide the necessary resources to better the learning environment of their children. Lack of
necessary materials for learning takes away the confidence and hope of success in academic
lifeline of the student from them. This directly leads to reluctance and finally under performance
of the learner in education.

Parents with low level education are associated with heavy occupation and poverty, this
heavy occupation which makes the parents feel much exhausted by the time they leave their
working places (Englund et al, 2015). This makes the parent just to avoid responsibilities such
following up the progress of their children which in return makes the children relax in academic
thus lose strong base of education thus when they grow up with poor foundations thus the
children end up failing to archive much in education.

Children do learn from observation, culture and ethics of their society, in many societies
parents with low education their children do also fail to get education, therefore children whose
parents education level is low as they grow and watch from their society they lose hope and
develop strong believe that they can’t make it in education line (Englundet al, 2015). This
attitude makes the learner to lose concentration and meditation in academics therefore finally end
up failing and low level of education.

Parents with low level of education will luck much information on what takes for a child
to perform in school, therefore this luck of information will lead them not to provide the best
advice to their children on which learning institution to join, the informative book the student
should use to be in position to learn comfortable and get best education that can help them to
achieve their dreams (Englund et al, 2015). Parents with low education level as study research
from many societies indicates, they will value all education institution offering the same level of
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 11

education to be equal forgetting resources such as books available in different school, qualified
teachers among others affects the learning of students, therefore majority will consider cost of
education in each institution and chose to take their children to cheap learning institutions.

Children brought up by parents with low level of education, their language development
will be much poor compared to their peer from well-educated parents since the low level
educated parents at home they lack language to use to the children except mother language, thus
the new languages will be introduced to the children for first time at school therefore it will be a
hard time for the children to catch up with the language and understand the content being
delivered by the teachers to them compared to the children from families with well-educated
parents(Stevenson & Baker, 2013).

It is observed from many societies that people do associate with friends of same features,
such as education level, income level and age among other features to form different groups that
built society. Parents with low level of education and poor are likely to leave next to other
similar families and associate with them therefore they will all take their children to same poor
school therefore is likely that the children will acquire poor quality education. Children from a
family of low level educated parents they are likely to interact with children from other similar
families for they leave in some areas (Stevenson & Baker, 2013). This will make the children
lack great exposure for they have limited access to better resources that can help them improve
their education interest and general achievements.

2.3 Influence of financial stability of the learners parents

This paper is related to studying the link which is there in between the factors which
affect the academic performance of the learner’s one the factors being the financial stability of
their backgrounds so as to know how financial stability might affect the academic performance
of the learners. Different perspectives have been discussed concerning the relationship between
the financial stability and academic performance. From the researches made it was realized that
financial stability of the learners gives them stand a better chance to perform very well in
academics since most of the necessities are available and they are assured of anything they want
for their better performance while studying (Maturana & Nickerson, 2016). It has been found
that, for the learners from the families which do not have financial stability they tend to be
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 12

stressed since they lack most of the requirements to affect their studies so as to perform better in
academics. The lack of financial stability depresses them since they cannot attain certain
standards of education which the learners from families with financial stability can attain.
Financial stability can act as a lubricant for those who have it for their better grades at
school since they are motivated by the access of anything they want in their lives for better
grades in future as opposed to those who lack the stability since they have to struggle so hard for
their performance and to get the required necessities (Maturana& Nickerson, 2016). This friction
makes them perform very poorly since they lack time to concentrate for their studies but they
concentrate much on how to make hands meet for the betterment of their performance at school.
From the studies made it was realized that this financial stability can also have an adverse
effects of the learners though not to that great on the learners. It is know that, too much supply or
access of everything can affect ones performance when not properly checked or under good care
of their guardians. From the researches made, it is realized that every success or a good
performance of a learner begins from home. The home of the learners determines their success of
the learners and development of learners academically since this is where they get
encouragement and hope from their parents (Kakumbi et al, 2016). For those who tend to get a
good encouragement from their parents they perform very well regardless of the situations at
home. For the learners who do not get access to the encouragement from their guardians their
performance at school is adversely affected since they never see the essence and importance of
studying since no one tells of the importance and positive effects the education has on the lives
of many who take it positive and attain good grades (Kakumbi et al, 2016).

Other factors that affect the performance of the learners is the socio-factors like the
attendance of the learners in class, the education level of the parents, the distance the learners
travel before they reach school also have got a very great impact on the performance of the
learners. For the learners whom their parents are learned, they tend to follow their ways of life so
as to be like them in future. This becomes a motivation to them and works hard for their success
and attains good grades using their parents as the role model in their lives ( Kakumbi et al, 2016).
Also learned parents of the learners take the initiative of advising and guiding their children on
how to perform very well in school. These guidelines and advice makes the learners see the
importance of the education thus end up attaining good grades in their class performance. For the
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 13

parents who are not learned, it becomes very hard for their children to perform very well in class
since they spent very less time with them impacting the importance of education to their minds
thus these learners end up not performing very in their class works(Kakumbi et al, 2016).
Another factor which was found of interest in the performance of the learners is the
teacher to student ratio (Summerset al, 2017). This ratio of the teacher to student affects the
performance of the learners greatly especially when it is not even among the students. When this
ratio is not affected very well in class, some learners’ ends up feeling not worth to study since
they feel like they have been neglected thus deteriorating their performance in class to a very
poor state (Summerset al, 2017). The distance a learner travels to reach school also counts on
their academic performance. For those learners who travel with a school bus they tend to perform
very well since most of their energy is conserved for studying only but for those who tent to walk
a very long distance to reach to school, they perform very poorly since most of their energy have
been used on the way walking thus making them exhausted not thus lose their concentration in
class (Maturana& Nickerson, 2016).

2.4 Summary of the literature review

The review of the researches related to the title of the paper were conducted based on
family background of the learners, the level of education of the learners parents, and the
influence the brought by financial stability of the learners parents. The review on family
background sought to see how the history on the family of the learner affected their performance.
Also the impact of family background on performance of the learner has been established

The review on the impact of learners’ parents’ education to the performance of the
learner sought to establish the relationship that existed. Research conducted relevant to our
subject of study were researched and the relevant information collected to help in the
development of concrete information required. Also a review on the impact financial stability of
the parents to the performance of the learner sought to establish the relationship between the two
and the relevance of the relationship to our study.

3.0 METHODOLOGY
The methods that this research will be explored and used in data collection for the study
will consist of the questioner and interview. Under this section, the information that will be
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 14

gathered includes how the family backgrounds of the learners, the level of education of the
parents of the learners and influence of financial status of the parents of the learners are aspects
affecting academic performance. For the questioner, both open and closed methods will be used
for data collection in the research and answer the question of research, “what are the key effects
of poverty to academic performance of learners?” Open questioner technique will be also
employed whereby the provided questions actually will oblige the responded to present the
answer according to his or her views up on the subject of research, how poverty affects academic
performance. Closed questioner also included questions will actually require no or yes answer
for the research subject.

The parents, pupils and some officers from the office of education board will be
interviewed about their point of view for how background families, the parent’s level of
education and poverty can affect the performance of a learner. There are three essential sorts of
research interviews that were used for to explore organized (structured) interviews, semi-
organized and unstructured interviews also called unstructured that will be employed in the
research. Structured interviews will be created and, basically, verbally proscribed investigation in
which arrangements of foreordained questions will be asked when conducting the research.
Consequently, these methods of data collection will be preferred because normally they are
speedy and simple to regulate and normalize when carrying out the research. The data that will
be collected through these methods is believed to be reliable. They will also of precise
significance use in the illumination of detailed investigation that will be required or if there will
probably going to be teaching or numeracy issues with the respondents during the research who
are mainly the parents and the students. For that reason, by their exceptionally nature, they
consider inhibited affiliate reactions and will be, accordingly, of little utilize if understanding is
required.

Moreover, unstructured interviews will not echo any biased hypotheses or thoughts and
are performed with next to thought association. Such an interview will basically begin with an
opening question, for example, the problem how financial stability of the parents affects the
academic performance of learners. Unstructured interviews will not be employed for data
collection in the research because they are generally extremely tedious, frequently enduring a
few hours, and prove to be hard to supervise, and to take an interest in, as the absence of fore
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 15

questions will give direction on what will be discussed. Their utilization will be, in this manner,
for the most part just considered where critical profundity is very important required, or where
practically nothing is thought about the branch of knowledge or else an alternate point of view of
a known branch of knowledge will be required for the research subject which is very significant
in the explain the effects of poverty in academic performance. The survey will be highly based
on the key aspects of poverty that affect academic performance in academic performance.

There might be various similarities between master diversion encounters and research
interviews in the research case, which involve the use of in the vicinity of relational skills, for
instance, listening and speaking and the data will be recorded. Semi-structured interviews
comprising of a few key inquiries that will help to characterize the ranges those might be
investigated. The interview structure that will be applied and utilized most in academic centers,
will give the participants some direction on what to discuss, which many find compliant and
helpful. The adaptability of this approach will be contrasted with organized interviews, likewise
takes into account the disclosure or elaboration of data that is imperative to the participants.

3.1 Designing the survey

While outlining the survey plan, it will be of significance to consider the primary and
secondary data collection. The method of questionnaires may have some strengths such as being
cheap, use of large sample ranges, being a quick method when conducting researches and
dangers on the interviews bias. It will be basic to make inquiries that will probably be going to
provide information that is resourceful, however, much of the data about the review question as
could reasonably be expected and furthermore have the capacity to address the points and
destinations of the examination. The two ways of data collection will be generated by the use of
participant’s survey within the time of the research. The process will be conducted in all the days
of the week including weekends. This will help allow for sufficient analysis of data collected and
enough time for more information to be gathered from all the people related to the hub. In a
subjective meeting, great inquiries ought to be open-finished that required more than a yes/no
answer, unbiased and reasonable.

Using of questionnaires, large amount of data will be analyzed very quickly. This method
of questionnaires also has some weakness including impersonality, differently interpretation of
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 16

data by the respondents, failure of the respondents in understanding a question, the method has
low replay rate, people lying, filling the questions as a joke with friends no extra information
may not provide extra information. It will be typically best to begin with questions that the
interviewee will answer for the sensitive cases. This will help in comforting respondents;
develop certainty and affinity together by provision of frequently rich information that
accordingly builds up the interviews further.

3.2 The basis for research interviews

The reason for the exploring the interview will be to conduct the researches from the
encounters, convictions, perspectives, or potentially inspirations of the poverty aspects that affect
academic performance and in which way. Non objective techniques, for example, interviews,
will have to better the research and add on the quality information from the interviewees for the
research in order to give a more profound comprehension of social marvels than would be
acquired from simply quantitative strategies, which includes polls. Interviews will be
accordingly, most fitting where little is as of now thought about the review wonder or where
definite bits of knowledge will be required from customers and other related people within
academic institutions. Bias issues are sometimes a challenge during the interview as and social
desirability will be highly considered. Some of the respondents may end up answering questions
that will make them look good and in turn give false responses.

Two of the extreme types of interviews will be used, unstructured and structured. When
one is conducting personal interviews survey or focusing a group false information may arise.
Some of the strengths in the method include personalization and clarification of any ambiguous
questions, no limitations to respondents to some fixed answers, the provision to access of many
different customers plus different information, there is flexibility and practical. Planning on how
the survey will be conducted is very vital from the basis of the research. Primary and secondary
data collected from the individuals will be of much help for the process as it is covering the
research with valid information about the hub plus they are known to be the main sources. Those
who will be involved in process will have an assurance in that the information that they will
provide concerning the hub should be treated with high strictness. There will also be some
additional proper for researching the delicate themes, where customers might not have any desire
to discuss such issues in a gathering situation. Those who will be conducting the survey ought to
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 17

be intellectual enough with good experience in the field of survey. Illiterate people cannot be
able to full take the process to the best it deserves due to the luck of the principles involved in the
process which need to be understood by those administering the interviews. The survey should
be strictly conducted with time from one respondent to another so as to interview as many of
them as possible. The more the information gathered, the better the quality of the data collected
will be appropriate for the effects of poverty in academic performance for learners.

As in any exploration, it will be regularly understanding to first conduct the interview

plan on a few respondents preceding information gathering suitably. This permits the
examination group to set up if the schedule could be a clear one, justifiable and fit for noting the
exploration questions, and assuming, consequently, any progressions to the meeting timetable
will be included.

 Question request will be with respect to significance of issues in the research

arrangement.

 Questions will move from all-purpose to more particular questions during the
research.

Likewise, secondary sources of information will be highly considered in the research

which incorporates the news papers, journals and diaries. In the case of journals, the past diaries
that could be precisely identifying the subject topic of research will have to be gathered from the
diverse libraries. Past news papers will be of more important for additional information and
ought to be considered in the research about the effects of poverty in academic performance.

4.0 CONCLUSION
Finally, as per the research questions discussed in methodology and the findings, has
been witnessed that the backgrounds of the learners have got a very big impact on the academic
performance of the learners either negative or positive depending on the status of the
background. If a learner comes from a poor background, chances of them performing effectively
are very rare since they miss most of the basic necessities from their home grounds thus end up
performing poorly in the academics. This situation is different from those who come from good
backgrounds since they get most of the necessities needed for the learners to perform better in
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 18

studies. Another factor which affected the performance of the learners is the status of education
of the parents of the learners. When the guardians of the learners are literate will tend to
influence their children to upgrade in their academic performance to be like them since they want
the best from them.

This encouragement in academics for the learners helps the learners to perform very well
in academics and be able to attain good scores in their studies. For the learners whom their
parents their level of education is very low or they are illiterate, have got a very great influence
since they don’t know the importance of education in the lives and to their children. The learner
which hails from these families will be performing poorly since they are not encouraged by their
guardians on importance of education and fruits it has on their lives. Another factor which has
great impact on the performance of the learners is the financial stability of the learner’s parents.
For the learners who come from families with financial stability they perform better in their
academics as opposed to those who come from families who do not have financial stability. All
these factors need to be considered for the better performance of the learners.
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 19

5.0 REFERENCES

Aizer, A., & Currie, J. (2014). The intergenerational transmission of inequality: Maternal
disadvantage and health at birth. Science, 344(6186), 856-861.

Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty
on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(31),
8664-8668.

Englund, M. M., Luckner, A. E., Whaley, G. J., &Egeland, B. (2016). Children's achievement in
early elementary school: Longitudinal effects of parental involvement, expectations, and
quality of assistance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(4), 723.
Kakumbi, Z., Samuel, E. B., &Mulendema, P. J. (2016). Pupil Home Background Characteristics
and Academic Performance in Senior Secondary Schools: A Case Study of Selected
Secondary Schools in Kitwe District, Zambia. Journal of Education and Practice,
7(22), 19-25.
Kao, G., &Tienda, M. (2015). Optimism and achievement: The educational performance of
immigrant youth. Social science quarterly, 1-19.
Kiss, M., Fechete, G., Pop, M., & Susa, G. (2014). Early childhood self-regulation in context:
Parental and familial environmental influences. Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An
Interdisciplinary Journal, 18(1), 55-85.

Maturana, G., & Nickerson, J. (2016). Real Effects of Financial Distress of Workers: Evidence
from Teacher Spillovers.
Scherer, M. (2016). On Poverty and Learning: Readings from Educational Leadership (EL
Essentials). ASCD.
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 20

Spaull, N. (2013). Poverty & privilege: Primary school inequality in South Africa. International
Journal of Educational Development, 33(5), 436-447.

Stevenson, D. L., & Baker, D. P. (2013). The family-school relation and the child's school
performance. Child development, 1348-1357.
SULEIMAN, S. A. (2016). INFLUENCE OF LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AND HOME
BACKGROUND ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY
SCHOOL STUDENTS’IN FEDERAL CAPITALTERRITORY ABUJA,
NIGERIA (Doctoral dissertation).

Summers, J. J., Davis, H. A., & Hoy, A. W. (2017).The effects of teachers' efficacy beliefs on
students' perceptions of teacher relationship quality.Learning and Individual Differences,
53, 17-25.
Wang, M. T., & Degol, J. (2013). Motivational pathways to STEM career choices: Using
expectancy–value perspective to understand individual and gender differences in STEM
fields. Developmental Review, 33(4), 304-340.

Walling, M. D., & Martinek, T. J. (2015). Learned helplessness: A case study of a middle school
student. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 14(4), 454-466.

Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (2015). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-
differences metric. In Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application (pp.
17-55). Springer International Publishing.
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 21

Appendix
Questionnaire

Personal information

Age.......................

Sex

o Male
o Female

Marital status

o Married

o Single

Level of education..............................................

Location........................................

Part 1: Questionnaire for parents

EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 22

The following questions should only be answered by the parents (p lease respond where
appropriate if it applies to you).

1. How would you rate the role of the government in helping alleviate poverty in improving
education of learners from poor and marginalized backgrounds?
O A) EXCELLENT
O B) GOOD
O C) FAIR
O D) POOR
2. WHAT IS THE CURRENT EDUCATION IN YOUR AREA AS FAR AS THE LEARNERS FROM POOR
BACKGROUNDS ARE CONSIDERED?
O A) EXCELLENT
O B) GOOD
O C) FAIR
O D) POOR
3. Do you believe that (1) above has contributed to the continued poor performance in
academics from those learners that come from poor backgrounds?
o Yes
o No
4. What do you think is the best solution to this problem?

. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .
...........

5. What have you done as a parent to create a change to this problem?

. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .
..........

Part 2: Questioner for the learners

The following are some of the questions that will be used to interview learners about their
perception on the effects of poverty on their academic performance.

1. How is the comparison between the performance of the learners from well up families
and those are poor?
2. What are the limitations that the poor students face as far as factors that contribute to
academic performance are concerned?
3. What are effects of poverty towards academic performance?
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 23

4. Do the tutors favor the economic able learners as compared to the ones from poor
backgrounds?
5. What are the plans that the administration is planning to put in place to assist the learners
from the poor background to help them improve and maintain academic performance?

Part 3: Questionnaire for the teachers

The following questions can be used to interview teachers of their knowledge on influence of the

education level of the parents to the performance of the children.

i. How often do parent of low education level visit their children at school to

follow up their performance?

ii. Generally how can you explain the performance of the children of low

educated parents compared to those of much educated parents?

iii. How do your students interact considering their parents education level?

iv. In morning observation how can you compare your students attention

considering their parents education level?

v. What is the ratio of your students considering the two groups, parents of high

education level to those of less educated parents?

vi. Explain from your understanding why your learning institution experience

search ratios?
EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 24

vii. From observation knowledge, how can you compare the happiness, activeness

and participation of the students from families with low level of education

parents to those from much educated parents?

viii. Give some reason for the performance of your students based on the influence

of their parents education level.

Matrix questions

Tick where appropriate in the following elements using the key below

Elements 1 2 3 4 5

1. Academic performance is the key factor for the for the students in

school

2. Beside students, academic performance is a measure of the teacher’s

efforts in their work.

3. Parents have great impact on the performance of the learners

4. The backgrounds of the learners of the matters a lot upon their

performance academically.

5. The level of literacy of the learners parents determines there

academic performance.

6. The level of financial stability of the leaners parents have great

impact on their academic performance.

7. The availability of necessary things for study for learners improves

their academic performance.

8. The ratio of student to teachers matters a lot for the performance of

EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 25

the learners.

9. The encouragements from the parents on importance of education

upgrade the academic performance of the learners.

10. Most of the learners who perform poorly is as a result of tiredness

from too much walking to and from school.

Keys

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Passionately

disagree disagree

1 2 3 4 5