CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the Study    The family is extremely the most important group to the society and most prominent in our lives. It is our first home where love, commitment, marriage and kinship links us closely with other family members, be it nuclear where father, mother and children predominate or extended family system. They all have great influence on the academic performance of children.    With the family, the children interact with each other on daily basis and learn most of the things they did not know, imitate their uncles, parents in their learning experiences. All these interactions exert a kind of influence on the academic performance of the student in most cases, family setup, be it extended or nuclear influences the child’s academic performance.    Heredity is a factor that determines the intelligence of children. The home also provides a conducive environment for learning to take place. If these are affected, the students’ academic performance will improve to a standard expected by them in the society.    The family is regarded as a fundamental unit in the society and most kinship system. It is an important unit in terms of social functions of the family (Alhassan, 2009). But the education of the child first takes place in the home. A child receives the basic education at home where he learns moves to become an important member of the society. One must note that the families are of different types. One can identify single parental homes, polygamous homes, homes where parents are of high educational and economic status and those where the parents’ educational and economic status is low.    The type of education a child receives at home is different from one home to another and this to a great extent influences a child’s personality and ability (Acus, 2011). The family is a divine institution and a foundation for all that is noble in a man whereby the interest and aspirations of the students are influenced on the following: The parents’ socio-economic status, the parents’ occupation, the students’ attitude towards academic activities, the parents’ level of income etc.    Also in the interim, parents are finding various ways of enhancing the academic performance of their children in terms of their responsibilities and roles towards their children academics. It was therefore necessary for the researcher to move a step forward, in order to find out more about homes and environment in relation to learning and behaviour, many steps have been taken to improve students’ academic performance or standards. Arball (2007) opined that apart from giving teacher education a priority, training and posting high qualified teachers in vary field of schools, government has procured many introductory technologies and sciences equipment for almost every school under the federal aid scheme, the federal government has sent many copies of textbooks in various discipline to schools.It is observed that parental responsibilities affects students performance in junior secondary schools. The parents have an important impact on their children’s academic performance in social studies and other courses. What the students’ are taught at home, how the parents/family maturates them, the assistance and opportunity given to the students to study contributes to the students’ success or failure.     Harderves (2008) noted that parental responsibilities such as: provision of learning materials (writing material and reading materials) affects the performance of students either positively or negatively, opportunity to study, parental commitment and paying of school fees promptly affects the students’ performance in schools also. Another factor that influences the performance of students as family responsibility is maturation and encouragement towards their children education. Most parents lack interest or show children in school activities little or no interest in how their children perform in school. Some do not assist their children in school activities such as: home work or assignments home lessons. It has also been observed that some parents do not give their children opportunity to read (study when they come back from school).Excessive involvement of children in domestic activities may affect the performance of the child in school. More family financial resources, which are associated with parents’ occupation and educational status often, imply increased both in home and in school. This research aims at investigating how home responsibilities affect students’ performance in social studies in junior secondary school in Ikot Ekpene metropolis. It will also focus on four variables such as provision of learning materials, opportunity to study, parental commitment and payment of school fees.

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