ABSTRACT

The study examined the influence of secondary school type and family background on Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores of candidates in South East Nigeria. It adopted an ex-post facto research design. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. A sample of 1,147 students admitted into the tertiary institutions in the South East Nigeria from 2013 to 2015 was drawn through the use of random sampling technique from a population of 271,716. Students' Bio Data Questionnaire (STUBIDA) with a very high validity value was used to collect data. The instrument had a reliability coefficient of 0.8 which was obtained through the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient from test-retest scores. The data collected were analyzed with the use of simple frequency distribution table, mean and standard deviation while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was discovered that candidates that attended private secondary schools scored higher in the UTME than their mates that attended the public schools and that candidates that came from families with high parents' income and education levels scored higher than those of low income and education parental background. The results revealed that school location (urban/rural) and school gender (singlesex/co-education) do not significantly influence candidates' UTME score and that school ownership (public/private), parental education and income levels exert significant influence on candidates' UTME scores. It was recommended that the government should diversify the economy and create employment opportunities so as to increase the general income level of its citizenry; government should be more committed in supporting the public schools which is attended by the majority of the students by supplying and maintaining school facilities, employing, retraining, supervising and motivating teachers adequately. The implication of the study is that education is becoming very expensive and that only few rich families could afford it. This trend must be checked before it destroys the society by making the nation building and development an unrealistic goal.