Abstract:
This study has attempted to describe and explain the relationship
between parents’ socioeconomic status and undergraduates’ educational
attainment using a case study approach. The objectives of the study were: to
estimate the relationship between parents’ educational level, income level
and occupations; with undergraduates’ educational performance in Faculty
of Arts, University of Jaffna in the year 2011. A convenient sample of arts and
law students attending a socioeconomically diverse University of Jaffna was
utilized as the basis for conducting an undergraduate student survey (n=40).
Data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaires for
undergraduates, interview with lecturers and head of the Departments,
documentary analysis of the university records and observation. Both
qualitative and quantitative methods of study were used. The researchers
used Tables, charts and Pearson’s correlation to describe and analyze
quantitative data while qualitative data were analyzed on the basis
of themes. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between
the parents’ level of education, income and occupation with pupil’s
educational performance. Students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds
tend to have higher levels of under graduate academic achievement because
they enter university with cultural capital that they acquired prior to
university. This study recommends that parents should continue to improve
on their education levels through adult education programmes. Secondly,
undergraduates from low socioeconomic backgrounds should try to
persevere through financial hardships and remain in university because
schooling eventually has a redeeming effect on their poor plight. Lastly,
undergraduates who obtain low grades should be helped to develop
academic curiosity in fields which are more relevant to them. Graduate
students can become academically liberated from the cultural effects of their
socioeconomic origins.
