Parents' socio-economic status can surely affect their children’s education, but this does not happen in all cases.  While it is true that a parent can take his children to any level possible in education, it is also true that some financially buoyant parents end up raising kids that are not academically sound.  We will delve into these issues in the remaining part of this write-up.

Education importance

The importance of education cannot be overemphasized in the life of a child.  Education can contribute to the productivity and enhancement of the population. Sound education can equally make the individual happy since it will take the individual on a journey of knowledge, which can place him above his peers.

The amount of knowledge an individual possesses can determine how far the individual will go in life and his level of productivity in anything he does. Educating the child can also translate to building the nation.

Virtually all the developed countries today have well-educated persons at the helm of affairs in their respective countries. So, every nation that wants to grow will need a good dose of education to thrive.    

Education and family background

An individual’s family background can go a long way to determine how educated that person can turn out to be.  It is one thing to have education, and it is an entirely different thing to have access to quality education.

Virtually anyone can go to school, but not everyone can access quality education.  This is because quality education can be expensive. However, this does not give excise for ignorance or lack of education. Since quality education can be pricey, only those from a wealthy family background may be able to access quality education. We will expatiate on this in the remaining part of this write-up.

Public schools vs. private schools

In today's Nigeria, most well-to-do parents register their wards at private schools, while the poor parents opt for public schools since public schools are far more affordable and can sometimes be 100% free.  

Private schools are of different categories; there are the high-brow private schools and the low-level ones with limited quality.  The wealthy parents prefer the high-brow private schools, and you will most find children from average socioeconomic families at the lower level private schools.

In most instances, those high-brow private schools have all the facilities and equipment needed to give their students the best education, while the lower-level private schools and public schools rarely have access to such facilities and equipment.

While some of the lower-level private schools may even have some or little equipment and facilities, this is rarely the case with public schools, where almost nothing is provided, except desks, chairs, chalkboard, the blackboard, and teachers.  It is as bad as that.

Private schools ensure that their teachers are always present at school and do their assigned jobs.  Even the lower-level private schools never joke with teachers’ absenteeism. As a result of this, the teachers at these private educational institutions are always up and doing.  So, there is no way their students will not be academically sound. 

This is rarely the case with public schools, where some teachers may not even be present. In fact, some teachers may only come to school when someone is coming to inspect their schools from the education ministry.

To make matters worse, the individuals from the education ministry are almost always complacent. Some of them give the schools a notification that they would visit, thereby giving the erring teachers adequate opportunities to put their acts together to pretend to be serious when the authorities come for an inspection.

Imagine what will happen to pupils left to learn in this kind of condition! Obviously, the chance of learning anything by such a kid is very slim, and all this is because the poor child comes from a low-income family background where the parents cannot afford to send him to a private-owned school.

Private coaching for students

Financially buoyant parents can afford to buy books and several other learning aids for their kids, but this is rarely the case with kids from low-income family backgrounds. The rich parents can even afford to get a private teacher for their kids after the rigors of learning at school. 

This helps the kid better understand the subjects being taught and can even make him perform better than his peers in class.  Parents of kids from poor backgrounds can rarely afford such a luxury. As a result, the level of knowledge of the kids is limited to what they can get from their public schools.

Consequently, many of them end up performing woefully when compared to students from private schools. Some kids in public schools may be able to afford private tutors for their kids, which makes their kids perform better than other students in the same class.  

While the above may be the usual happening, it must be stated that some students from public schools do shine like a million stars by teaching themselves what their schools are unable to teach them because of the lack of equipment, facilities, and dedicated teachers. Such students read at every available opportunity, and they can acquire more knowledge than what their schools can avail them.

So, they tend to perform better than their colleagues in the same school and find themselves at the same level of intelligence as students from private schools. This may be a rather uncommon occurrence, but it does happen.

Is there any way out?

A student does not have to attend a private school for him to be academically sound.  Public schools are peopled with well-trained teachers. In fact, the academic qualifications of teachers in public schools are higher in most cases than what obtains in private schools. So, the teachers have what it takes to turn the academic lives of the public school students around. 

The government needs to get public schools well equipped and provide all the teachers' facilities for teaching.  Aside from providing a conducive learning and teaching environment for the students and teachers, the government should also monitor the activities of these teachers to get them committed to teaching.

Since public schools are free, children from low-income family backgrounds will not have to change to a private school before they too can become academically sound.